Places You Go — Brad Shepik Trio

This is a review I wrote for SA-CD.net and published there on the 8th of March 2008. SA-CD.net has since become hraudio.net and the old review pages went with it, so this is reproduced from the Internet Archive’s capture. It ran as a site review, and carries a joint copyright line with SA-CD.net.

The review is reproduced as it stood. Only the site’s own furniture around it — the star graphics, the “was this review helpful?” footer — has been dropped, and the ratings it carried are restated as numbers below.

Songlines · SGL SA1562-2 · hybrid disc · stereo and multichannel

Performance 4.5/5 · Sonics stereo 4/5, multichannel 4/5

This is an somewhat unusual jazz trio, consisting of guitar, drums and Hammond organ replacing the acoustic bass. Brad Shepik plays guitar like a blend of John Scofield and Bill Frisell in a mellow mood, accompanied by Gary Versace on the Hammond and Tom Rainey on drums. The songs are all original compositions, and feature a set of mid tempo numbers, interspersed with ballads and slow waltzes.

The influence of Bill Frisell is mostly felt on the slow tracks, particularly “Five and Dime.” “Batur” has a rather exotic feel about it, and the piece reminded me somewhat pf Santana during his “Devadip” days. The last track “Tides” sounded a bit free form but other than that most of the songs were fairly “straight ahead.”

The guitar sound is fairly clean, with a solid tone and just a hint of flare. The Hammond also comes through reasonably cleanly, sounding neither too murky nor too piercing.

The multichannel mix is 5.0, but closer to 4.0 (I never noticed more than the merest murmurs coming from the front centre channel). The mix is relatively front focused, with the surround channels extending the depth of the soundstage.

All in all a very listenable album. Despite the playing time of almost an hour, I wished it would go on longer.