Album Review
Although guitarist Tom Taylor's CD appears on Summit, a jazz label, his music is infused with so many different stylistic influences that it is extremely difficult to categorize. His core group includes Joe Caploe (vibes, marimba, and percussion), bassist Rick Steffen (who plays both electric and acoustic instruments, as does the leader), and drummer Curt Moore. Mandolinist David Grisman (a longtime master at mixing multiple genres into his own music) is added for the catchy "Aubade," which also has Frank Zappa-like twists at the end of phrases. The intricate "Pasque March" has a baroque flavor, while "Big Basin Breakdown" features the Kronos Quartet adding their strings to its Aaron Copland-flavored introduction, though with the addition of the core group it turns into more of a country hoedown with a touch of klezmer music, once again adding Grisman. Even a fairly straightforward arrangement of the centuries-old "Greensleeves" seems very fresh. Someone other than a critic will probably have to come up with a more satisfying label to describe Tom Taylor's music (he simply calls it "Tom Taylor's Music" in his liner notes), though anyone interested in jazz, rock, classical, bluegrass, fusion, or world music ought to give it a hearing.
