Robert Stillman's Horses CD

Personnel: Robert Stillman (tenor saxophone, piano, drums, tambourine); Robert Stillman; Luke Temple (guitar); Peter Rende (piano, Fender Rhodes piano, pump organ); Adam Chilenski (acoustic bass, electric bass).
Recording information: Avast! Studio, Seattle, WA (2004).
The eclectic New York musician Robert Stillman's recordings defy easy categorization. This set, recorded in Seattle, conjures avant-garde jazz, the faux-19th-century musical patina of the early Band, and Tom Waits's fairground carny ambience. "The Dance 1" is an eccentric, herky-jerky waltz that envelops Stillman's pretty saxophone melody in an increasingly macabre atmosphere, "Half-Luke" has a French boulevardier atmosphere, and the hesitant piano of "That's Enough" has a shambling, closing-time feel.
Not quite jazz, not quite post-rock...post-jazz, maybe? Whatever. Robert Stillman's Horses is a thoroughly engaging instrumental album consisting of seven lengthy pieces featuring Stillman's lyrical, legato tenor sax phrasing and his bandmates' low-key accompaniment, heavy on non-traditional keyboards like pump organ and clavinet. The songs unfold organically rather than establishing themes as jump-off points for solos in the jazz tradition; instead, rhythmic variety is the key, as the record moves from the waltz time of the two-part "The Dance" to the countrified shuffle of "Half-Luke" and onward to the space rock feel of the lengthy centerpiece, "Love Theme." Mellow, but with too much melodic and rhythmic interest to be considered an ambient chillout record, Robert Stillman's Horses is difficult to classify but easy to love. ~ Stewart Mason