2007-05-01
Downbeat Magazine By Ken Micallef - Review
on "Dragonfly" and "Uptown," Deacon Blues glows with purpose.
Downbeat Magazine May 2007
Pete Levin Deacon Blues Motema Music 8 by Ken Micallef
Synth specialist Pete Levin has veered into organ territory. The New York artist has a serious keyboard resume (playing with the likes of John Scofield, Miles Davis and Gil Evans), so you'd expect him to lay down some real grease and gravy on Deacon Blues, his 11th album as a leader yet his first to embrace the Hammond B-3. Instead, Levin goes for a more cosmopolitan approach, mixing burners ("Uptown," "Icarus") with snore-inducing musings ("First Gymnopedie," "Sad Truth," "Might Have Been"), mellow swingers ("Mean To Me," "Eclipse") and progressive fusion/bop ("Dragonfly"). ?Levin and company play it cool for much of the album, laying back when they should be charging, adopting a predominantly mellow tone that smacks of too many sterile studios and commercial jingle dates. But when the group catches fire, as on "Dragonfly" and "Uptown," Deacon Blues glows with purpose. Drummer Danny Gottlieb floats like a bee on the circuitously flammable "Dragonfly," which also features some of Levin's best B-3 work, and everyone smokes on "Uptown," a classic organ trio cooker. The date's a mixed bag, but one that sill offers some moments of white-knuckled heat.
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