Cold Fusion

Album review

Thanks to a generous grant of funding from the open-minded Scottish Arts Council, drummer Tom Bancroft is now living a personal dream: releasing some of the best -- and least noticed -- jazz-based experimental music of Scotland. Trio AAB is forward-thinking as part of the future's mammal egg-stealing onslaught on the ungainly major-label dinosaurs. Less that ten-percent of Caber's start-up capital netted Bancroft his most expensive and most crucial bit of technology, the CD duplicator. With no money tied up in unsold stock, Caber can sign groups on artistic merit alone as it markets through mail order and the Internet, basically creating CDs as they are ordered. Bancroft is joined in this band by his twin brother Phil Bancroft on saxophones and Kevin MacKenzie on guitar and guitar synth. While "Untitled" is an example of ECM-style reflective jazz and "Gotta Decide" is fun and funky dynamism, this trio stretches even further to cover Ornette Coleman ("When Will the Blues Ever Leave?") and finds a lazy, contemporary R&B feel in 2Pac Shakur's "I Ain't Mad at Cha." Guest vocals on this subtly and sweetly delivered track are from Columbia Records' Gina Rae. Put it all together and Tom Bancroft is a man with a head for business and music, and he has a lot more style than Herb Alpert or Madonna.
© Tom Schulte /TiVo