Rudy Royston’s ‘Flatbed Buggy’ featuring in WBGO’s ‘Take Five’
Nat Chinen has some nice things to say about Flatbed Buggy on the WBGO blog.
We’re big fans of Chinen’s weekly Take Five column because he shines a light on so much great music that is coming out. Here’s what he had to say about the newly-released Rudy Royston album in this week’s piece:
The deep, elastic groove in Rudy Royston’s drumming has become a prominent feature on the our jazz landscape, powering bands led by guitarist Bill Frisell, trumpeter Dave Douglas and myriad others. Royston has also shown poise as a bandleader and composer — most recently with Flatbed Buggy, his third album on Greenleaf Music. Along with a root-level hookup of Royston and bassist Joe Martin, it features a whimsically unconventional array of timbres: John Ellis (mainly) on bass clarinet, Gary Versace on accordion and Hank Roberts on cello.
There’s a folk character to this instrumentation, and Royston amplifies that feeling on the album’s brightly loping title track. The hint of New Orleans second-line bounce in the tune provides a nice cushion for Versace’s accordion solo, and for a smartly blustery statement by Ellis.
You can buy the album from our store on Bandcamp, as well as iTunes, Amazon and elsewhere. And you can stream on Apple Music and Spotify.
