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The opening track is an uninspired rendition of the Miles Davis classic "All Blues." The quartet never really seems to find their groove and lacks a cohesiveness that sets the tone for most of the remainder of the album. They do redeem themselves admirably on their cover of the standard "Nice and Easy," definitely the highlight of this CD, which contains excellent solos by both Temmerman on tenor sax and Steven Hashimoto on electric bass. Unfortunately, this track is the exception rather than the rule.  Though Temmerman leads this group, guitarist Neal Alger is the real star here. He is an outstanding guitar player that never overplays and never forgets that his role is that of an accompanist. As a group, however, this quartet-rounded out by Rusty Jones on drums-sounds like they haven't spent enough time playing together to develop a real musical rapport.To be fair, much of 'The Power Of Two' seems to suffer at the hands of the album's producer, who overemphasizes the cymbals and muddies everything with too much reverb, robbing Temmerman of the warm "live" tone one might have expected to hear. Temmerman is not a sophisticated player, neither technically nor harmonically, but he does bring a wonderful sense of intimacy to these songs, which is a true asset to this recording. He is also to be commended on his creative choice of material, especially on "Costa del Sol," a song he first discovered while playing "Final Fantasy VII," a Playstation video game. Of the remaining eleven tracks presented here, five are covers and six are Temmerman originals. He's a promising composer, writing tunes deeply rooted in the blues with simple, pleasant melodies. This is definitely a quartet worth keeping an eye on. If they continue to record together, it will be interesting to see how the group develops their sound on future releases. |
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