Matt Criscuolo, Blippity Blat

Altoman Matt Criscuolo comes at us with a very engaging new album, Blippity Blat (Jazzeria 2013). He is joined by a group of compatible heavies in vets Larry Willis on piano, John Clark of French horn fame, plus Billy Williams on drums and Gerald Cannon on acoustic bass.

This is contemporary-modern funk in the post-Horace-Silver sense. It has some of that old Blue Note resilience. Cooking and good blowing vehicles abound. It has soul but does not resort to the old cliches.

Matt has a slithering sort of chromaticism that sounds better than ever. Clark and Willis do what they do best, and the rhythm team has the power to get it all in drive.

The Criscuolo-Clark front line gets full use in the heads for a sound that reminds but gets a fresh face.

This is one very cool feather in Matt Criscuolo's cap!