We know Kyle Nasser from the band Beekman, whose two albums here at Ropeadope are still a delight and in heavy rotation. 2018 marked the release of Kyle’s second solo project, Persistent Fancy, where Nasser had the opportunity to get into the studio with a disparate cast of musicians. Nick Jost from the metal band Baroness, Roman Filiu currently performs with Steve Coleman, Miguel Zenon, and Dafnis Prieto) , and Alan Mednard is one of the most in-demand drummers in the jazz world. The band rounds out with Dov Manski on piano and Jeff Miles on guitar, and together they journey through the heady world of Kyle Nasser’s vision.
RAD X RAD | Adam Ahuja Reviews Bright Dog Red
"Means to the Ends" Album Review
by Adam Ahuja, Infinity Gritty
Bright Dog Red might be a recurring dream character: that mesmerizing image of an animal icon placed face-to-face with an observer, maintaining a deep and unmistakable familiarity, yet owning a mysterious personality that cannot be consciously recalled. The character holds a strong purpose, but one that is rather better felt than understood. "Means to the Ends," released by Bright Dog Red on Ropeadope Records, might be the sonic counterpart to that subconscious creature.
The album's first scene opens with an inter-weaving, inter-dimensional calling home, taking the listener straight into the caverns of a musical monk circle, priming the ears for a journey. The listener is quickly christened by the sound of drummer Joe Pignato's guiding ride-cymbal surfs. Vocal narrations by emcees Cully and Righteous follow with worthy contemplations, easing the listener further into the deep mind.
The journey is decorated with sax and trumpet echoes, guitar swirl-pools, and mountainous, rebellious bass steps. As the listener engages Bright Dog Red, a continuation of organic and synthetic sounds splash the atmosphere with assertion, expressed with a palpable sense of liberation. You might call it Self-Reflective Swing Hop.
"Means to the Ends" is a refreshing surrender into sound that will appropriately answer the listener's questions with more of the right questions. A full album encounter may cause one to pleasantly hum diminished scales and melodies as a result thereafter, as if that wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Essentially: if one is eager and ready to unmask the Bright Dog Red in waking life, the album "Means to the Ends" is the right place to do it.
2018 Countdown | Bright Dog Red
Courage is the order of the times we live in, and these cats have it. Led by music educator and industry veteran Joe Pignato, the band composes while performing. There is a level of communication at play here that is both a lesson in music and a lesson in well, just being a human. Patience, mutual respect, and fierce collaboration is what the world needs, and Bright Dog Red are proving it possible simply by playing music together. In any great movement there is a great leader, and the best leaders know how to stay out of the way - another lesson that many of our political leaders would do well to understand. Pignato and Bright Dog Red released Means To The Ends this year, and we suspect the title is a subtle message to us all.
2018 Countdown | David Cieri
In keeping with today’s orchestral, cinematic theme, next up in the countdown is the 2018 release from composer David Cieri. His 2017 release - Notes From The Underscore - show his work on a variety of documentaries with Florentine Films. His previous work with Yusef Komunyakaa and Mike Brown captures the intersection of poetry and music just as if you were wandering by a downtown club and heard it live. This fall David returned with the soundtrack to the new documentary - The Mayo Clinic: Unity Of Forces. Here David composes for the unique film, with the great Bill Frisell on guitar. Cieri describes the project and the music:
‘This documentary is a 2 hour comprehensive dive into the history of a health care ideal as exemplified by The Mayo Clinic. The story traces the clinics origins - a pact - made by a visionary doctor named William Worel Mayo and the sisters of St Francis in Rochester Minnesota to set up a hospital which put the needs of the patient first. From this singular philosophy, a model of health care in the United States emerged with international influence and impact.
Talk surrounding our current health care crisis needs to step away from the divisive, un nuanced, and essentially useless binary modes of I’m right and your wrong. The Mayo Clinic model is actively shifting this conversation away from political gridlock and into the realms of discovery and earned possibility.
The music is striving to represent this ideal - historically and into the future - this perhaps is an uncommon story because it offers real hope and prescription rather than description of our ills which too often get inordinate attention. My intent was to bake the church pew and Wagner and Americana into the compositions. It’s the most moral music I’ve made to date. The sessions were challenging - it’s one thing to give the darkness due weight in music but it was another challenge altogether to make very positive gestures have real and earned gravity too. And the musicians! Listening back to Bill and Putnam dialoguing on a few of these cuts is to feel immense love and joy in being here to witness, to watch, to pry, to learn, to become something better than we have imagined.’ (David Cieri)