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Tiny Resistors
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List Price: $17.98
Our Price: $17.98
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Cryptogramophone
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0671860013822
Label: Cryptogramophone
Manufacturer: Cryptogramophone
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Cryptogramophone
Release Date: 2008-06-10
Studio: Cryptogramophone
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Editorial Reviews:
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Grand melodies, shifting textures, and thick rhythms radiate from Todd Sickafoose's music. On Tiny Resistors, the bassist/composer matches his 8-piece New York band with a pair of guests, Andrew Bird and Ani DiFranco, to create a jazz record with the muscle and scope of an indie-rock orchestra. Throughout its 68 minutes of music, the record evokes images: the mysterious flora of a future epoch, the revelation of a secret message scribbled in invisible ink, an exodus of buzzing bees, and the silent sadness of an underwater piano, drowned in the waters of Lake Pontchartrain. It is these visions, and others, that inspire the 11 original compositions on Tiny Resistors, Sickafoose's third and most lushly-produced release to date.
This is music from a thinker whom the San Francisco Chronicle calls; A captivating improviser, imaginative composer, and master of collaboration.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Sublime post-jazz frequencies
Comment: I was a huge fan of Todd Sickafoose's Blood Orange, but this one trumps it methinks. Those who dismiss it for concentrating too much on mood are missing the depth of the arrangements here. The first track alone contains an album's worth of textural cross-currents, with brass, violin, multiple guitars, piano and drums blooming in ever-growing floral patters -- the "Future Flora" of the title. There's some Fela Kuti omni-funk to be found on a track like "Warm Stone," and again the groove is overflowing with texture and tons of rhythmic combo-punches. Sickafoose's melodies on "Invisible Ink, Revealed" and "Everyone Is Going" curl quizzically, or "like a couple of question marks" (to quote Ani DiFranco, who guests on the indomitable cosmic jam "Bye Bye Bees" and impossibly bittersweet elegy "Pianos of the 9th Ward" -- that trumpet sounds like it's weeping). Andrew Bird slides in to the mix just beautifully, swooping gracefully with his violin, adding color here and there with that inimitable whistling of his. You will find many jewels of solos on Tiny Resistors, most of the "dude sensitively exploring the crevices of a groove and chord" variety, and I can't identify a single musician on the album who isn't pulling his/her own weight. Sickafoose has assembled a terrific, out-of-the-box group, pitched somewhere between a big-band and chamber-jazz ensemble, and he's headed towards new places with it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This CD rocks!
Comment: This album has some great compositions. My favs are Future Flora, Invisible Ink Revealed, Bye Bye Bees (with Andrew Bird and Ani Di Franco), Warm Stone, and Tiny Resistors. I'd liken this album to Bill Frisell's "Unspeakable" in its tone/mood. Fans of J A Granelli and Mr Lucky, or Slow Poke, or Ralph Alessi & This Against That, Kneebody, or Kurt Rosenwinkle will likely appreciate this CD. In other words, it's kind of heavy on the guitar, with the horn section adding color. We're not talking jazz standards with chord changes every four bars, everyone taking turns soloing. This is more about, not to sound like a hippie, but a good groove with melodies that speak more coherently than the usual play-as-fast-as-you-can crap.
Here's who's on this cd:
Shane Endsley - trumpet
Ben Wendel - tenor sax, bassoon
Alan Ferber - trombone
Skerik - baritone sax
Adam Levy - guitar, acoustic guitar
Mike Gamble - guitar, effects
Allison Miller - drums, percussion
Simon Lott - drums, percussion
Todd Sickafoose - acoustic & electric bass, piano, wurlitzer, vibraphone, marimba, bells, celeste, accordion
Andrew Bird - violin & looping, whistling
Ani DiFranco - voice, telephone mic, electric ukelele
Get it, or at least download the tracks that sound cool to you.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Nice new creative music to jingle-jangle your mind!
Comment: Never mind the music this guy's played with Jenny Scheinman, Ani DiFranco, and whomever, and let's forget the "jazz" and other genre boxes, too. This is big, winding, playful instrumental music brought to bear by virtuosic musicianship, always poking into interesting places without falling into the trap of being cold or nerdy. Colorful palette and colorful melodic destinations. I love this stuff. Sure, it's hip and sort of a product of the "downtown" Manhattan scene, but play this for your 5-year-old and see how he or she gets down to it!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Moody free jazz - not particularly inspiring
Comment: This is moody, rambling, dreamy, wistful, imaginative, thoughtfully thoughtless free jazz. Sickafoose chooses interesting sounds - relying heavily on two electric guitars, three horns, and a percussion section, but also adds in violins and whistling from Andrew Bird and some effects by Ani DiFranco. I find the slower tracks (1, 2, 3, 6, 9) rather dull, but the mid-tempo tracks keep my attention and have a nice chill, quiet feel to them. Check out Pianos of the 9th Ward (tk 4) for haunting piano and vocal sounds, Everyone is Going (tk 5) for its focus on trumpets, violins, and drums, Warm Stone (tk 7) for a cool Herbie Hancock type groove, Paper Trombones (tk 8) for muted trumpet sounds, Whistle (tk 9) for Bird's famous whistling, and Barnacle (tk 11) for a track that sounds like its playing over the credits at the end of a long sad-but-uplifting movie. In fact, it makes a fitting cap to this album.
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