That's no spelling mistake on the title of the Mark Dresser Seven's seven-track new Sedimental You (Clean Feed). Although the title tune is, indeed, taken from Tommy Dorsey's 1932 "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You," Dresser is hardly sentimental. He's talking sediment here. Like rocks, man. Yet there's no rock here. Go figure. Opener "Hobby Lobby Horse" is a groove. "Will Well" is for Roswell Rudd, a seminal influence, despite the fact that Dresser is a bassist/composer and Rudd is a trombone man. It's a tender piece, filled with Nicole Mitchell's heavenly alto flute and Marty Ehrlich's bass clarinet. Dresser says, "it's an incantation." "I Can Smell You Listening" is for the mezzo-soprano Alexandria Montano [1961-2007] wherein Ehrlich switches to clarinet. "Newtown Char" is an elegiac response to the Connecticut abomination where kindergarten kids were killed. "Two Handfuls of Peace" is for sax man Daniel Jackson [1937-2014].
With Michael Dessen on trombone, Joshua White on piano, Jim Black on drums and David Morales Boroff on violin, Dresser can mix'n'match colors for maximum effect. He worked with Black in tours of Japan with pianist Sakoto Fujii. Born in Los Angeles, Dresser studied in Italy, and moved to New York to accept an invitation to be in the band of multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton where he settled in nicely for the better part of a decade. He now resides in San Diego where he teaches at the University of California.
Matty T. Wall goes from Jimi Hendrix ("Voodoo Chile") to Keb Mo ("Am I Wrong") to Robert Johnson ("Hellhound Of My Trail") on his terrific new Blue Skies debut (Hipster Dumpster Records). His riveting originals like the rockin' opener "Burnin' Up Burnin' Down" (check out the clip below), "Scorcher" and "Broken Heart Tattoo" will, indeed, tattoo you on your brain so deep you'll be humming this stuff for weeks. His stinging electric guitar hero moves are righteous, especially when ably backed by his tight little quintet of drummer Jaspar Miller, bassist Stephen Walker, organist Gordon Cant and back-up singer Deli Rowe. Dude's from Perth, Australia. Having grown up digging classic rock, he found his calling in the blues. Solid.