Genius Envy

Amazon.com
It's hard to pick out the uppermost entrancing feature of Ron Horton's debut, Genius Envy. The sound, which allows the bass to shine like the brightest undersea life without muddying even the highest-veering saxophones (here, Jane Ira Bloom's soprano), stands out immediately. But Horton's writing is at the heart of the session, providing great amalgams in "Carla Blake" and "For Thomas Chapin," each of them embodying vast, stylistic curvature, from the deep dimensions of Andrew Hill to a playfully subversive cinematic strain. Horton's music is tremendously narrative, providing ingenious setups that grow into all sorts of dramatic developments--oddly timed rhythmic interludes, gutsy plunger-mute trumpet solos, and chamberesque commentaries on a slow-going bass solo--before resolving into sheer, smart works. Certainly he's prone to using his band coloristically, especially bassist Ben Allison and pianist Frank Kimbrough, with whom Horton has paid homage to late jazz composer Herbie Nichols on Dr. Cyclops' Dream. When this subunit of Horton's full sextet comes to the fore, as on the ballad "Embrace," their ears are hyperattentive to space, making beautiful, decorous music. Horton's debut holds a wealth of promise. --Andrew Bartlett

From Jazziz
On this recording, flugelhornist and trumpeter Ron Horton extends the styles of '60s Blue Note artists such as Andrew Hill, Bobby Hutcherson, and Joe Henderson - players who worked on the border between inside and outside, with perhaps an occasional touch of Ornette Coleman. His melodies twist and glide through slippery chord progressions, with some freer sections. Horton often plays flugelhorn with great warmth and lyricism and can conjure a similar tone on trumpet. But he can also play fleet, burning trumpet solos, as on the darkly grooving "Long-Term Memories," mixing Booker Little and Woody Shaw influences in a distinctive style of his own.

Horton teams with a fluid, flexible rhythm section of pianist Frank Kimbrough, bassist Ben Allison (Horton's bandmates in the Herbie Nichols Project), and drummer Rich Rosenzweig, with the addition of tenor saxophonist John McKenna and soprano saxist Jane Ira Bloom on various tunes.

A profoundly elegiac tone dominates the album, most obviously on the tribute "For Thomas Chapin." A few tracks offer a change of pace: the perky, Poulenc-esque "Claude's Petite Bicyclette"; the edgy, explosive title tune; and the boogeying "Happy and Out of It (on the Beach)," the head of which recalls the obligatory jukebox tune on '60s Blue Note LPs before expanding into a freer middle section with the three horns blowing over an in-the-pocket drumbeat.Mellow yet edgy, unsettling yet soothing, varied yet coherent, Horton's complex yet melodic music balances enough facets that it's endlessly fascinating.

Genius Envy,Ron Horton,Omnitone Records,Jazz,Jazz Music,Pop,Post-Bop

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