"The source of Horton's soul may be unacountable, but evidence of it pervades this album. Its essence is a peacefullness that does not preclude inquiry, an identity so secure that it can wholeheartedly embrace the beauty other souls have begot. His sound reaches out to a wealth of touchstones - he admires trumpeters Lee Morgan, Chet Baker and Miles Davis, saxophonist Stan Getz, and composers including jazz-identified Nichols and Hill, the French Catholic organist of Notre-Dame cathedral Olivier Messiaen, and the Polish-born pianist of the early romantic era Frederic Chopin."
- Howard Mandel, jazz critic
"Trumpeter/flugelhornist Ron Horton came onto my radar floating on a cloud, it seemed on Andrew Hill's Dusk (Palmetto, 2000). His solo on that disc's stunningly beautiful title track drifted and roiled with a understated, dreamy poetic grace, a song within a song, a personalized expansion of Hill's theme. The approach on Subtextures is much the same.
The recording opens with an Andrew Hill composition, 'Cantarnos' and includes four Horton originals; a Chopin piece; pianist Frank Kimbrough's 'Rumors'; and Horton's take on an early chorale work by Messiaen.
Horton employs all-star accompaniment here: pianist Frank Kimbrough (Quickening, Omnitone, 2004), bassist Ben Allison (Peace Pipe, Palmetto, 2002), and drummer Matt Wilson (Humidity, Palmetto, 2003), a group that interacts with with intimacy and imagination. Horton on his own compositions as well as on the covers tells stories in a beautifully oblique way that walks a fine line between free and more mainstream sounds. Melody reigns, but the trumpeter and his bandmates approach it from curves and angles, giving the music a very open feel. Open but still accessible.
'O Sacrum Convivium' (Messiaen) rides a cushion of introspection with a subtle insistence, while the title tune churns with a persuasive and gradually building, propulsive drive. 'Mutability' fits into the Miles Davis mid-sixties mode with its drive and sharper edges. 'Malaby,' for tenor sax man Tony Malaby, holds a tint of darker 'subtextures,' featuring some of drummer Wilson's and bassist Allison's most interesting work on the disc, followed by Frank Kimbrough's intricately angular piano solo.
All in all, a cohesive band creating an interesting and off-center set of sounds."
- Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz (Feb 2004) |