CD Review: Harvie S - Cocolamus Bridge

Featured Artist: Harvie S

CD Title: Cocolamus Bridge

Year: 2010

Record Label: Blue Bamboo Music

Style: Various Jazz Styles

Musicians: Harvie S (bass), Chris Cortez (guitar), Woody Witt (sax), Jose Miguel Yamal (piano), Joel Fulgham (drums), James Metcalfe (Percussion)

Review: Harvie S is a master bass player, composer, arranger, producer and educator. His experience includes recordings with jazz greats like Chick Corea, Anat Cohen, Mike Stern and John Scofield.

Cocolamus Bridge starts with a bass solo track. It is hard to keep the listener attention in a seven minutes piece with only bass. Harvie does just that with a very interesting arrangement of the Irish folk song Eili Gheal Chiuin. On this track Harvie shows his virtuosity, creativity and impressive technique.

Cocolamus Bridge is a fascinating melodic tune with nice harmonies by Harvie on bass and Woody Witt on sax.

Chris Cortez on guitar joins Harvie and Witt providing some cool improvisations on Courage, a fun, rhythmic, challenging tune. Harvie learning experience on Cuba comes out in the latin flavors of Coco Loco, a latin jazz with great contributions by the rhythm section, Chris on guitar, José Mangual Yamal on piano, Joel Fulgham on drums and James Metcalfe on percussion.

Night Dreamer is a bass and sax duet with Woody playing some powerful solos on sax. Chris and José Miguel play most of the melodies on To Bea, a beautiful samba dedicated to Harvie mother.

Ike (take a hike) is another latin influenced piece where you can clearly hear the “clave”, a rhythmic figure typical of Cuban music and also essential in Salsa music. Truth and Beauty gentle melodies slow downs the tempo to end this CD in a nice, relaxing mood.

Tracks: Eili Gheal Chiuin, Cocolamus Bridge, Courage, Coco Loco, Night Dreamer, To Bea, Ike (take a hike), Truth and Beauty

Artist's Website: http://www.harvies.com

Reviewed by: Wilbert Sostre