Search - Andrew Cheshire :: This Is Me

Moody, sensitive, and intelligent jazz

Stephen Ginsburg | 01/29/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I hadn't heard a thing about Andrew Cheshire when I bought the album several months ago, but I find myself playing it a lot. Cheshire has a sound and a style similar in some respects to John Stowell (who is terrific, by the way). The big difference is that he plays 99.9% single-note lines and rarely comps. No matter, the pianist, Don Friedman, holds his own very well and fills up the sound, as do Ron McClure and Matt Wilson, drums and bass, both of whom support the soloists unobtrusively with exquisite taste.
In fact taste and subtlety are what mark Cheshire's compositions and playing more than anything. His music is almost devoid of bebop licks, as well as flamboyant pyrotechnics; it's filled with diminished runs, minor scales and surprising and original turns and resolutions. The first cut in particular builds in tension for quite a stretch and resolves explosively and briefly into a bluesy run. Emotional stuff!
In short, players like Cheshire and Stowell seem to be devoted to a 21st century straight-ahead jazz, that explores dissonance but remains accessible, and is free from fusion and rock influences and largely free from cliche. I'm not saying bop is a bad thing - Howard Alden and Jimmy Bruno are also my cup of tea when it comes to guitar - but if you can see yourself enjoying some music that is different from most staight-ahead jazz and yet still clearly jazz, I think you'll like this recording."