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| New CD Release: Bill McBirnie - "Mercy"  Following up on his two previously acclaimed acoustic projects (Nature Boy with Mark Eisenman and Paco Paco with Bernie Senensky), "extreme flutist", Bill McBirnie, has come out swinging and scintillating once again with yet another exceptional full-length acoustic flute release, Mercy. On Mercy, Bill joins forces with Romani piano sensation, Robi Botos, for a series of duos and, for the remaining quartet pieces, Bill couples Robi with a steadfast rhythm section consisting of the sure-footed Pat Collins on bass and the rock-solid John Sumner on drums.Mercy presents a diverse, as well as gratifying, mix of both duo and quartet tracks that run the gamut from bebop ("Yardbird Suite") to bossa nova ("Gentle Rain") right through to Dixieland ("Way Down Yonder in New Orleans"). In addition to the more standard fare is the title track, "Mercy", a poignant rhapsody written by pianist, Robi Botos. In keeping with Bill's previous two Extreme Flute releases, Mercy remains faithful to the spontaneous and down-to-earth qualities of a blowing session resulting in another album with inevitable "drop-the-needle-anywhere" charm and allure. The album clocks in at precisely 60:00 minutes and, in so doing, provides one hour of great listening with repertoire that consists of the following (with the opening two tracks paying tribute to Bill's longstanding influences, Hubert Laws and Jeremy Steig, respectively): (1) Baila Cinderella (Hubert Laws) – cha cha cha (2) Willow Weep For Me (Ann Ronell) – ballad (3) Airegin (Sonny Rollins) – bebop (4) Stuffy Turkey (Thelonious Monk) – medium swing (5) Gentle Rain (Louis Bonfa) – slow bossa nova (6) I'm Walkin' (Bartholomew/Domino) – medium swing (SAMPLE TRACK MOUNTED AT MYSPACE!) (7) Yardbird Suite (Charlie Parker) – bebop (8) Way Down Yonder In New Orleans (Creamer/Layton) – Dixieland (9) Moment's Notice (John Coltrane) – up swing (10) Minha Saudade (Joao Donato) – medium bossa nova (11) Groovin' High (Dizzy Gillespie) – bebop (12) Mercy (Robi Botos) – slow rhapsody write your comments about the article :: © 2009 Jazz News :: home page |