Album Review of
Moving Forward

Written by Joe Ross
October 19, 2016 - 12:00am EDT
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Brent Gallaher is a master jazzman who gives us a memorable experience featuring a solid jazz quintet with tenor sax, trumpet, piano, bass and drums. The eight compositions range from 5 to 7.5 minutes apiece, and that relaxed approach in arrangement provides plenty of undisturbed opportunity for exquisite playing and intelligent, thoughtful improvisation. About the opening cut, “Serendipity,” Gallaher notes that it was “an unusually smooth process creating the composition, to the point it almost seemed like it was serendipity.” Gallaher’s original title cut is a tribute to pianist Horace Silver, noted for his terse, imaginative and utterly funky style. It’s a good showpiece for pianist Dan Karlsberg who wrote the nascent closing cut, “Cesar,” for this project. The other compositions (written by Kim Pensyl, Fred Hersch or Alex Pope Norris) offer heartfelt, appealing and expressive statements of broad-minded musical creativity and progression.  (Joe Ross, Roots Music Report)