BAZ – LADY FROM TOULOUSE

Baz is the musical project of guitarist Aaron Flower, a blues-man whose growly Fender sound is turning heads around town a fair bit recently. As this CD opens you’d be forgiven for mistaking the title track for some instrumental outtake from The Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main Street – its street-wise groove punctuated by ragged horns and an infectious drunken swagger in the drums. Flower’s style is quite melodic – he’s not a guitarist/composer that relies on whiz-bang finger flashing, instead his music revolves around the melodic interplay between his guitar and the carefully arranged instruments of his Baz band. There’s an interesting fusion of Californian coast-rock, roadhouse blues and David/Bacharach jazz pop on this album – illustrated well by Dark Ballad and I Live In A Mansion. Some of the more upbeat jams keep the party swinging without getting too heady or technical; and Flower uses the spareness of Ry Cooder to make his guitar statements. Overall, this is very satisfying instrumental jazz-rock – of a kind that transcends academic posturing and rests comfortably in the art of simply having a good time with one’s  instrument.

***1/2