Search - Tom Alonso :: Indian Summer

JAZZ TIMES REVIEW

08/30/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Keyboardist-composer Tom Alonso issues forth an impressive collection of moodscapes in Indian Summer (Clean Cuts, CCD 711; 53:36). Alonso's assets are many. There's his rich harmonic palette, and evocatively bold melodies. There's also an impressive rhythmic verve, and the ability to handle a covey of classical strings and voices without letting things get bloated or heavy-handed. Indeed, the music is fresh, and alive, due in no small part to the smart work of drummer Dennis Chambers and bassist Ashton Fletcher. Alonso's playing is another plus. So, too, is his ability to sketch in longer forms as with the postmodern pastiche, "Cold Coffee Suite," a time-warp intersection where Mozart meets Rudy Vallee (among others), in a manner reminiscent of Lalo Schifrin's brilliant Dissection and Reconstruction of Music from the Past as Performed by the Inmates of Lalo Schifrin's Demented Ensemble as a Tribute to the Memory of the Marquis de Sade (Verve; 1996)."