Paul Meyers Quartet
Paul Meyers Quartet Featuring Frank Weiss
Miles High Records
Paul Meyers’ jazz is the sort of cool music that either pulls your analytical mind into the mix, or lets you chill out and enjoy the sunset. Sneaky little melodies and subtle key shifts infiltrate the music, but never jar. Meyers’ guitar skips and dances over the solid, adult/responsible stand-up bass, and Frank Weiss on flute and trumpet adds the sort of punctuation that you need to make a good book readable.
This 2007 disc by Meyer and pals provides a solid, no funny business listening experience. The songs are standards, some better known than others – “Blue Lanturn” is upbeat and brisk, “In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning” is quite introspective and mouse-like. “I Cover The Water Front” could be the theme song for a rye-soaked, brass-knuckle receiving private eye. Simple liner notes give a few-sentence history of each song, and insight into Meyers’ attack on the tune – key changes, new time signatures, and even the addition of a Brazilian touch to “Lazy Afternoon” – makes these standards a half-size different, but every bit as enjoyable as the originals.
Miles High: http://www.mileshighrecords.com
