Erik Scott
Here’s an artist with a storied musical career still reaching new heights. On Erik’s new release, he finds the commonality between devotional, visionary, inspiring, instrumentally dazzling, and even heroic. As beautiful and from the heart as it is technically adept, his current material is virtuosic but never ostentatious, and always capable of bringing aural wizardry to the forefront in varied settings.
All the original music was created by Erik, and he’s included a host of high-talent players—John Pirruccello (whose pedal steel guitar playing has highlighted the last few Scott offerings), Celso Alberti (drum loops, acoustic drums, and percussion), John Luttrell (electric guitar), Andy Mitran (percussion), Jeff Pearce (guitar synth), and Jeff Oster (trumpet, flugelhorn) all join together in work that will surely be nominated for awards. That’s especially true for compositions like “Ghosts of Storyville,” which features superb wordless vocals by Sandy Griffith, and a tasty interchange between Erik’s bass and Jeff’s trumpet.
Of the nine songs Erik offers up for your sonic enjoyment, it is the meditatively dreamy and “whispery” soaring of “A Wing and a Prayer” that provides the highlight with its blending of sitar, vocals, and various other instruments with an ambience few performances can achieve. Erik ranks up there with Michael Manring in the New Age genre and on a larger scale, with Tony Levin. He has been around as long as those two marvelous players. That about says it all from my perspective. ErikScottBass.com
—LLOYD BARDE (LLOYDBARDE.COM)