Brian Rolland is a seasoned jazz player with several studio albums and many years of practical training behind him. On the 2007 release The Tide’s In, he has a host of great support behind him to make the recording exceptional. Rolland plays all the guitars, and adds some vocals while the rest of his band (see credits) provides the quintessential support necessary for a great recording.
The Tide’s In shows the many talents of Brian Rolland. The opening track sets the pace and creates a nice healing atmosphere with some lovely female vocals that encourages Brian’s guitar to step deeper into the flowing waters. This is an invitation to musical enchantment that is only the beginning. As it turns out this does set the precedence for the album.
I felt the songs where Rolland used his female counterparts to cover the vocals were the most appealing. His guitars do most of the talking throughout this recording however; yet he does an adequate job with the vocals he contributes. The instrumentals are particularly interesting because the focus is entirely on Rolland’s incredibly talented six-string virtuoso. He is an accomplished jazz musician that likes to inject his music with tropical Latin flavors and dashes of pop.
“Free Fall” and “Millennium Calypso” are a great stage for this accomplished musician to capture your imagination with his fluid and precise playing. As much as I appreciated the tracks that had vocals I think kicking back and soaking up the instrumentals where what made me realize just how good of a guitar player Rolland is. “Kick It” is a great tune, full of life and inspired with catchy guitar riffs and one line throughout-“Grab your hat, kick it back!." There are some nice rhythmic vocal workouts with some old-fashioned humming and scatting to feed the guitar frenzy. Brian really cuts loose on this track offering up some of his very best guitar work and it turns out to be the best song on the album. Another instrumental comes in right behind it titled “Catch Me If You Can.”
This music reminded me of one of my favorite jazz albums of all time, Harlequin featuring Dave Grusin and Lee Ritenour, for me that was sweet because I was discovering jazz at the time that album came out. For this listener, this is one of the highest forms of compliments that I could give an artist and it is well deserving indeed.
Credits:
Brian Rolland-guitars, vocals, piano
John Lockwood-bass
Bob Warner-percussion
Dave Mattacks drums, keyboards, piano (track #1), percussion
Eguie Castrillo-congas, percussion
Hope Carpenter, Marianne Murphy, Katy Auburn-vocals
Keith “MuzikMan” Hannaleck-April 30, 2008
