Guitarist Todd Clouser's A Love Electric

Guitarist Todd Clouser has assembled a crack outfit that includes trumpet man Steve Bernstein for his third outing as a leader.

Todd Clouser's A Love Electric (Ropeadope) draws on a jazz-fusion, jazz-rock orientation for a personal blend of sounds that brings in a retro Fender Rhodes-organ centered groove rock that doesn't balk at taking things a little out when the spirit moves. His relocation to Baja Mexico in 2006 after a stint at Berklee has enabled him to come to terms with his own musical vision without the pressure to follow trends or spend most of his time in the scuffle to stay afloat.

What he most certainly done is to free himself up to return to his initial fascination for the electric sound colors that players like Hendrix and Jimmy Page made such an important part of the vocabulary of the electric guitar in the late'60s-early '70s. He goes his own way with those inspirations, injects a healthy dose of the soul-jazz from that era, and works well with Mr. Bernstein as a two-man front line that provides contrast and grits in equal measure.

The originals are good forward-moving vehicles for the musical gymnastics and grooves that take place here.

All in all a solid effort; a pleasure to hear.

Hear Fight the Big Bull for Exciting Big Band Outness, 2010 Style

Guitarist Matt White and trumpet extraordinaire Steven Bernstein put together some provocative charts for the avant-contemporary big band Fight the Big Bull and their new album Gladness in the Kingdom (Clean Feed). White and Bernstein are joined by ten other game musicians in a powerful, rough-and-ready set of pieces that utilize both free timelessness and hard riffing, almost rock intense lines for a very exciting romp through musical thickets overflowing with ideas.

Like some of Steven Bernstein's large ensemble music and Carla Bley's band at its best, there is a healthy unity of the written and the improvised, the free and the rooted pulse music of the modern vernacular. And it's an extroverted, brash, boldly emblazoned sound they get.

Bernstein's raucous trumpet and White's effects drenched psyche-soundscape guitar find good company in the other soloists featured on the various tracks. All are lucid. The ensemble sonority and the many twists and turns in the charts make for an excellently conceived, heartily executed, exciting CD.

THIS is what a modern big band sounds like. Fight the Big Bull doesn't try to recreate successful, hoary old bop charts or swing era niceties. It's music of today. It's excellent music of today.