Dean Poling
The Valdosta Daily Times
VALDOSTA —
ALONE: Marc Copland
Marc Copland is an extremely talented jazz pianist. Extremely talented. No doubts. His “Alone” is a raw testimonial, a keyboard baring of the naked soul of an artist at work. Through discordant chord changes in his original pieces and his interpretations of three Joni Mitchell songs and works by others, Copland deconstructs a dystopian empire, plucking notes from the pages, twisting them, turning them upside down, squeezing them. Yes, he is a talented guy, an evocative pianist and composer. That said, it must also be noted that what could well be a theme running throughout this CD, that “Alone” quality, results in each of these 10 songs sounding near identical. Instead of the measured time of each tune, each song being framed within its own composition, these songs run together like a 69-minute and 47-second runny watercolor. “Alone” is compositionally whole but blurred by its own insistent integrity.
STARBOUND: Robin Verheyen
Robin Verheyen can make his soprano and tenor saxophones wail. He can make them tease, cajole, seduce. With all but two of the 11 songs on “Starbound” credited as Verheyen’s compositions, he and his combo of Bill Carrothers, piano, Nicolas Thys, bass, and Dre Pallemaerts, drums, bring to life a stellar CD that alternatively breathes like a runner, a swimmer, a sleeper, a driver, while never forgetting the relational power of an exhale or inhale to a saxophone.
