Pick of the Week: Brian Rolland

By Keith Hannaleck - May 04, 2008
iBerkshires Columnist

The Tide's In

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 Rolland. The opening track sets the pace and creates a nice healing atmosphere with some lovely female vocals that encourages Holland'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.

Holland 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.

Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck of Adams offers up his best-listening bets as a regular contributor to iBerkshires. For more reviews, www.muzikreviews.com.

Tracks

01.	Tide's In	07.	Roots of Rhythm Remain/African Skies
02.	Magellan	08.	Millenium Calypso
03.	Free Fall	09.	Somewhere
04.	Doliber's Cove	10.	Kick It!
05.	Collage/Water Is Wide	11.	Catch Me If You Can
06.	Ask Me To	12.	Moonlight Holds The Key

Credits:

Brian Rolland — guitars, vocals, piano

John Lockwood — bass

Bob Warner — percussion

Dave Mattacks —  drums, keyboards, piano (track No. 1), percussion

Eguie Castrillo — congas, percussion

Hope Carpenter, Marianne Murphy, Katy Auburn — vocals
 
Genre: Jazz/pop

Label: On The Full Moon Productions

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