By Ric Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 7.2.09
Buy CD: Bicoastal Collective Chapter One
During the past year or so, I've noticed a significant increase in the number of albums released by musicians who have 1) earned advanced college degrees; 2) played with numerous “name” artists during, and subsequent to, their educational years; 3) returned to colleges to become professors; and, finally, 4) formed bands and then recorded with them.
This release features just such a pair. Paul Tynan, born in Ontario, Canada, moved to Houston, Texas, at an early age; he met Aaron Lington while both were graduate students at the University of North Texas. Tynan studied classical trumpet, and didn't even know who Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis were until he was in college.
Lington began as a violinist and then guitarist, and switched to saxophone only to get into his high school marching band. He also was a late-comer to jazz.
Tynan earned a master's degree and teaches at Nova Scotia's St. Francis Xavier University; Lington received a doctorate and is an associate professor at San Jose State University.
This album's 10 tracks are original compositions and arrangements; the seven-movement “The Story of Langston Suite” is by Tynan, with the rest by Lington.
The Bicoastal Collective is a 10-piece orchestra consisting of three reeds, two trumpets/flugelhorns, trombone/tuba, piano, guitar, bass and drums. Thanks to the masterful arrangements, the ensemble sounds like a big band. The result is smooth and sophisticated jazz: the kind of music you must hear more than once, to appreciate its content.
Better still, the quality is such that you'll want to hear it often.
The liner notes promise more Bicoastal Collective chapters to come; I look forward to them.
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