Sinistral is the name of the CD, and the name of the band. The name means of the left side, or left-handed. The trio is led by left-handed bassist Greg Loughman (hence the name) and features two of Boston's finest musicians, Kyle Aho on piano and Mike Connors on drums. Sinistral forges a new voice in jazz that is at various times exhilaratingly chaotic and poignantly lyric, meticulously structured and spontaneously interpreted, and at all times artfully modern. quot;Very mature playing with a real lyrical flavor. The trio sounds great together, tight when it needs to be and loose and wide open in between. The tunes make for a coherent whole; a cycle of sorts. The solos are strong and the moods are compelling. Great stuff; This band needs to be heard!!!quot; - Frank Carlberg 'The music is just fantastic. It puts me in a place that I love being in. It's intimate, it's harmonically rich; it's got everything. I love the sound of the group...it's so modern. I just loved it.' - Jerry Bergonzi About the songs: Northwest Passage and MT: While I was living in Montana, I conceived these two songs (hence the titles; although MT is also a tribute to the great McCoy Tyner, and was partially inspired by his song 'Effendi', in which the left hand of the piano doubles the bass in melody). These songs (as well as most of the songs on the album) are the result of some explorations of harmony I began while living there as I tried to get a sense of how the Miles Davis quintet and other groups from that time created such rich, striking textures on albums such as 'ESP' and 'Nefertiti'. Ricany: This melody is inspired by the folk melodies of the British Isles, which always seem to have a haunting quality. Not being one to leave well enough alone, I then reharmonized it, and fit the meter into a combination of 5/8, 7/8, and 9/8 measures, leading Mike to give it the unofficial title 'the hardest tune ever'. This song combines a simple melody, underpinned by subtle harmonies and shifting, nebulous rhythms. It is named for a beautiful town outside of Prague, which has nothing to do with anything except I like that place and the people there. Big 5: This song is bi-polar. The first 5 bar section builds in a 'bluesy/out' vein as layers get introduced on top of layers until it crests into a rarefied section that toggles back and forth between 9/8 and 11/8, which Kyle somehow manages to feel as one big group of 5 (hence the title). Alejo: I have always loved latin music, and the rumba guaguanco has always attracted me with it's beautiful melodies that float over complex, shifting rhythms. In this song, the bass takes over the role of the congas, while the drums play a fractured interpretation of traditional latin rhythms, and the piano floats over the top with simple melodies made exotic by their bitonal relationship to the bassline, invoking the surreal landscape of an Alejo Carpentier novel. Darn That Dream: I've always thought this melody was pretty wild, especially considering how popular this song is. We decided to take this idea and run with it. Look out for hurricane Kyle on this track... Sinistral: This song is inspired by 20th century serial composers such as Webern and Berg. The intro. And bridge consists of two 12-tone rows, and the harmony was structured to accentuate the alien quality of the melody and to create a barren, slightly menacing musical landscape. Take the A Train: I was sitting around with my friend Steve Grover and we were goofing around taking m
