Thomas Barber's Janus Bloc - "Snow Road"
Thomas Barber's Janus Bloc - "Snow Road"
A big band album I really like (I'm pretty picky about the big band I listen to). Tim Collins plays vibes on a couple tracks. It could be the album title and cover that's influencing my opinion, but the music on this album, I can almost feel the winter drifts of snow outside their recording studio. Barber attains a tremendously warm sound from song to song. My favorite tracks thus far are "Song for Snow Road" (which has this wonderful ominous feel to it, even at its happiest moments) and "The Mind Beneath" (which I like just because I like it, can't really explain why).
These guys sound like they've been playing together since they were little tikes.
Here's his site, where among a lot of tracks from different projects, he has four of the eight tracks for listening, plus some minute samples for the rest.
http://thomasbarber.com/live/
Available on emusic, if you haven't yet quit in disgust over their new pricing structure.
http://www.emusic.com/album/-Snow-Road-MP3-Download/11891994.html
Comments
I'll check out those tracks on his website later, when I'm done podding.
Or are you a body snatcher and it's invasion day?
Also, Barber seems to get it in terms of site management. He's got four full tracks (out of eight) from his album Snow Road to preview (which really should be a bare minimum, but half is nothing to complain about; it's fair, y'know?), and then also has tracks from other projects under his own name and others to listen to while browsing the site. Just a smart way to approach the music listener/buyer. It keeps me on his site and listening to his music, but from a large picture perspective, it serves notice that he's got his hands in a lot of different projects and constantly making new music, which signals to me that it's a good idea to revisit his site with a regular frequency.
And, really, when you boil it down, it's just smart. I buy a lot of music each year. Most of us here do. Speaking for myself, the more frequently a musician gives me an opportunity to hear his or her music, the greater the chance I'm going to buy it. And when that music catches on with listeners such as those on this site, who love finding new music and letting others know about it, that's a deft way to get the word out, yeah?
It's a little after five in the morning here. My sleep schedule is all screwed up after a bad run of health these last two weeks. I wish I could fall back asleep for a few more hours, but it's looking more and more like I've got a coffee pot in my future and not a pillow. Anyways, the sky is gonna start lighting up all shades of blue pretty soon, and Snow Road was making such a nice soundtrack to the moment, so I figured I'd bop back onto this thread and say something nice about it.
And, hey, Happy New Year.
Thomas Barber links to our thread about his album "Snow Road" on his site here...
http://www.thomasbarber.com/live/
Is that emusers first official shout-out?
Thomas, since undoubtedly you're now hopelessly addicted to our site, let me just say, first, thanks for the album. I never stop appreciating the gift of great new music, and I hope to hear more of your stuff down the road. You are one of the musicians (along with Darcy Argue, Dave Chisholm, and Guillermo Klein) who've really got me back into big band/large ensemble jazz. Keep in touch.
Also, in case you track this kind of thing, I found your site (and thus your music) from a link on Tim Collins' site. Quite frankly, I've been finding a lot of really good music from links to musicians on both of your sites.
And if you do talk to Tim, please encourage him to cobble together an album of his Hell Gate Strings ensemble. Use force if necessary, whatever you decide.
Cheers.
Seconding Jonah's words and are posting this with pleasure . . .
Bandcamp:
released 28 July 2009
Thomas Barber - Trumpet and Flugelhorn
Claudio Roditi - Trumpet
Tim Collins - Vibes
Nasheet Waits - Drums
Linda Oh - Bass
Adam Birnbaum - Piano
Michael Dease - Trombone
Sharel Cassity - Alto Sax, Flute
Lauren Sevian - Baritone Sax, Bass Clarinet
Stacy Dillard - Tenor Sax
Peter Reardon Anderson - Clarinet
Sydney Braunfeld - Horn
Amy Schroeder - Violin
Keiko Tokunaga - Violin
Gillian Gallagher - Viola
Andrew Yee - Cello