| "The music of the Gove County Philharmonic, a seven piece chamber ensemble, reminds me of a scene from the film Fight Club. In it, Brad Pitt works as a movie projectionist in children’s theatre. He splices split-second violent and pornographic images into the movie so they only appear in the subconscious mind of the viewer. While the sweet fairy tale movie plays out, the children cry and scream out for seemingly no apparent reason.
Composer, arranger, and bassist Jim Connolly chose also to dabble in a bit of culture jamming. His music, a throwback to a folksy Charles Ives and the Americana of Aaron Copeland, is cloaked in a faux-naivete by design. It’s the difference between Disney and Warner Brothers cartoons of the mid-1940s. Disney made cartoons for children, while Bugs and Elmer Fudd were adult insider jokes masquerading as kiddy animation. Connolly makes not so much cartoon music, as puppet soundtracks... Another wonderful disc by the euphoniously eccentric Connolly." - Mark Corroto, AllAboutJazz.com (excerpt)
"Generally, the album finds its sense of balance by oscillating between reflective and giddy stuff, with dollops of improvisatory anarchy (as on "Noodling for Flatheads") and Bartok-y winks along the way. As usual, Connolly never forgets musicality, however light-headed things might get." - Josef Woodard, The Independent (excerpt) |