No More Shapes - Creesus Crisis (Drip Audio, 2010) ***½

An unusual line-up of trombone, guitar and drums, but with nice results. J.C. Jones plays trombone (not to be confused with JC Jones the bass-player), Jay Crocker is on guitar and Eric Hamelin handles the kit. Very much anchored in the jazz tradition, these three guys take the tradition a step further, adding rock-ish and electronic elements without moving too far away from the source.

Some pieces are boppish ("Fat Kid"), bluesy ("Invisible Glasses"), emo-rock ("If Only My Chin Had Eyes") ... but whatever the formal basis, they give it a creative twist, add a nice touch of modern spices. Most of the straight-forward harmonic development is more familiar in rock-music, and may appear repetitive after a while, yet it works out nicely. "New Years (Yves)", the last track shown below is my favorite, with a great theme, and a wonderful trombone improvisation. The nice things is that the band moves as one, without pretense, carefully exploring their new sound universe. We can only hope they carve out their vision even more, possibly a little more daring, without losing their poised approach.

Nice debut!

Watch "New Years (Yves)"


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