Album Review: Seascape

It’s always a joy to hear players with more chops than a butchery. This album features some of the finest musicianship I’ve heard in years, and is like the fillet steak of chops, at the risk of mixing my meaty metaphors.

Urlwyn Trebilco has been a guitar player for 50 years and is based in Hamilton. His guitar playing alone is a great reason to give this album a listen with the intent to buy. However, he’s gathered a collection of equally brilliant players on Seascape which match his impressive abilities.

Other players on this album include Tony Sisam, Stephen Bennett and Jeremy Badger, all of whom add depth, texture and some excellent grooves.

Right from the opening of the first track, Elephantine, featuring what sounds like a Hammond b3 organ, the interplay between the musicians is evident.

If I had to pick a favourite tune it’d be the second tune, Mussel Fritters, which bops along like a child leaving school at the end of the year heading for the beach. My head was nodding and fingers tapping in a vain attempt to keep up with the drummer’s spider-like dexterity, as his work on the track is positively haunted with a multitude of ghost notes.

But, this is an instrumental jazz album, don’t be expecting singing, except coming from your own heart as you listen to it on rotate either at the summer BBQ or while driving to your summer holiday destination.

Track four, One Time, really embodies the nautical theme as it rises and falls in intensity like an undulating sea.

Seascape is a collection of beautifully captured, mostly mellow Jazz tunes, where each player takes a solo while the others take a breather, it’s a top album.