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My Only Secret
My Only Secret in Bloomington, MN
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Even with their already experimental, genre-crossing approach to jazz, Portland's
Blue Cranes
have ever more unique ways to expand their sound. They employed a string quartet for 2013's
Swim
and collaborated with vocalists on 2021's
Voices
. While 2023's
My Only Secret
finds the group returning to their core instrumental lineup, it's just as harmonically inventive and genre-bending as anything they've done before. Once again featured is the dual tenor and alto saxophone front-line of
Reed Wallsmith
and
Joe Cunningham
, along with keyboardist
Rebecca Sanborn
, bassist
Jon Shaw
, and drummer
Ji Tanzer
. Also contributing at various times are trombonist
James Powers
, flutist
John Savage
, clarinetist
Nicole McCabe
, and guitarist
Timothy Young
. There's an evocative, imagistic quality to much of the album exemplified by the opening "Sloan," whose insistent minor-key piano and glassy synth lines sound like the soundtrack to a '70s sci-fi or thriller production for the BBC. Just as evocative is "Sandbox" with its blown-out Rhodes keyboard riff, handclaps, ringing school bell, and children's slide whistle -- all of which has the effect of
Stereolab
playing out elementary school children on their last day before summer vacation. More imagistic notions arrive with "Semicircle," a flowing modal jazz number marked by a woody bass-and-drum groove and eerie synthesizer accents that has the feeling of
Pharoah Sanders
welcoming an alien spacecraft to Earth. There's also a contemporary classical influence running through the album, as on "Forward," where the group's refracted lines have the repeated echo effect of the work of composer
Philip Glass
. Similarly, the album-ending "Lonely Coyote" starts with a sparkle of analog synths, like northern lights over a desert landscape, before erupting into a harmonic dust cloud of screaming sax and percussion. All of this image-inducing music has the sensory impact of a nature documentary, like
Koyaanisqatsi
, and
proves just as enrapturing. ~ Matt Collar
Blue Cranes
have ever more unique ways to expand their sound. They employed a string quartet for 2013's
Swim
and collaborated with vocalists on 2021's
Voices
. While 2023's
My Only Secret
finds the group returning to their core instrumental lineup, it's just as harmonically inventive and genre-bending as anything they've done before. Once again featured is the dual tenor and alto saxophone front-line of
Reed Wallsmith
and
Joe Cunningham
, along with keyboardist
Rebecca Sanborn
, bassist
Jon Shaw
, and drummer
Ji Tanzer
. Also contributing at various times are trombonist
James Powers
, flutist
John Savage
, clarinetist
Nicole McCabe
, and guitarist
Timothy Young
. There's an evocative, imagistic quality to much of the album exemplified by the opening "Sloan," whose insistent minor-key piano and glassy synth lines sound like the soundtrack to a '70s sci-fi or thriller production for the BBC. Just as evocative is "Sandbox" with its blown-out Rhodes keyboard riff, handclaps, ringing school bell, and children's slide whistle -- all of which has the effect of
Stereolab
playing out elementary school children on their last day before summer vacation. More imagistic notions arrive with "Semicircle," a flowing modal jazz number marked by a woody bass-and-drum groove and eerie synthesizer accents that has the feeling of
Pharoah Sanders
welcoming an alien spacecraft to Earth. There's also a contemporary classical influence running through the album, as on "Forward," where the group's refracted lines have the repeated echo effect of the work of composer
Philip Glass
. Similarly, the album-ending "Lonely Coyote" starts with a sparkle of analog synths, like northern lights over a desert landscape, before erupting into a harmonic dust cloud of screaming sax and percussion. All of this image-inducing music has the sensory impact of a nature documentary, like
Koyaanisqatsi
, and
proves just as enrapturing. ~ Matt Collar
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