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Brandi Disterheft: Second Side

  Tobias Fischer

Apart from tabling the surprise of the year, Canadian jazz-bassist Disterheft shatters the sophomore jinx with this one, and in fact this is a lot more innovative than her first as it turns out, capturing an aural snapshot of Weather Report and Massive Attack chatting at a French café.

Instrumental slowbie opener “Sketches of Belief” is a world unto itself, Disterheft plunking a simple couple of tones that seem to be pressing for answers from someone who doesn’t want to be asked, this while sax-player Chris Gale enters some Wayne Shorter-like comments over some seriously innovative, subliminal work from drummer Sly Juhas, the true hero of this record. In solo mode Disterheft conjures a sedate Mingus (“Let Her Shine,” co-written by Front Line Assembly’s Rhys Fulber), but this isn’t some vanity release, it’s an eye-opening crossover.

Top-drawer jazz-pop chill-outs, strewn about the place like lost treasures, spotlight female singers Holly Cole and Ranee Lee – it’s albums like this that make you wish the average IQ was 20 points higher so that radio wouldn’t be committing suicide by getting behind it.

By Eric Saeger

Homepage: Brandi Disterheft
Homepage: Justin Time Records