calendar  |  musicians  |  venues  |  concert reviews  |  CD reviews  |  photos  |  features





Track listing:
1. Unknown Soldier
2. Sideways
3. Waterway
4. Rather Wonderful
5. Yet Another Pharoah
6. History of a Mystery
7. A Remark You Made
8. Yonati
9. Lonely Woman


Personnel:
Michael Bisio - bass
Bob Gluck - piano & electronics
Dean Sharp - percussion


click here for audio samples or to purchase this CD


click here to learn more about Bob Gluck


BOB GLUCK TRIO - Sideways (FMR)

by Jeff Waggoner

Anyone who knows anything about Bob Gluck knows he’s in for a delight when he plops the CD “Sideways” into the player. It surprises and engages throughout.

Gluck, a professor at SUNY Albany, is a polymath, and it shows.  Not only does he, as the CD cover modestly states, perform on piano and “electronics,” but he and his trio move the music’s rhythms, melodies and timbres through history. It’s a contemporary sound that provides timeless beauty.

No small part of the success of this CD belongs to Gluck’s fellow artists in his Albany-based trio: Bassist Michael Bisio and percussionist Dean Sharp.

Bisio’s improvisational boldness and brilliance stands him in good stead in any context.  And don’t expect the standard thumps and crashes from Sharp’s drumming. If you do, you  miss much music.

Nine songs on the CD; Mostly originals by Gluck and Bisio.  Gluck, never afraid of the familiar, also provides songs by jazz giants Joe Zawinul and Ornette Coleman. But the compositions of the local heroes are never overshadowed. Indeed, Bisio’s song, “History of a Mystery: H. Floresiensis” is a disturbing, romantic masterpiece.

It’s a hallmark of the album: Gluck never uses a sound in isolation – each tone is part of the picture, providing context and comprehension.
Sideways won’t come out of my player for a while.

Jeff Waggoner has written book, CD and concert reviews for publications such as Metroland, Jazz Times, Blues Access and The New York Times. He lives in Nassau, is a student of jazz saxophone and guitar and can be frequently found at jazz, blues and folk concerts.