There is something utterly compelling, while appealingly elusive, about Cri$el Gems from Paul Bryan, the bass guitarist and Aimee Mann producer who has produced the album with guitarist Jeff Parker...
Marlbank.net
Paul Bryan, GRAMMY-winning producer of Aimee Mann’s Mental Illness, knows his way around a studio, and he also knows his way around an electric bass.
Mel Minter Musically Speaking
“Cri$el Gems was really the culmination of a Tuesday night residency at ETA in Highland Park that drummer Matt Mayhall and I had for most of 2018. Jeff had his band in there on Mondays too so there was a lot of creative energy happening- so many great musicians in this little cramped bar. Anyway, we were playing a lot, purposefully changing up the format every week. Sometimes we would play free, or with Chris Speed and Greg Uhlmann, sometimes a band with Jeff Parker and Josh Johnson. But eventually we landed on a band with Lee and Davey on electric piano and congas respectively. Jeff would join us too when he could and it really became a vibe.”
“I wasn’t really on the road much that year so I thought, Why not use the time to do something constructive? You know, something more than just jam every Tuesday? So I decided to write specifically for that band and the instrumentation and tried to bring in as many new tunes as I could. We had a few weeks in a row when the band was hot so I set up some mics at my studio the next couple days and we pretty much tracked it live- Jay Bellerose joined us and I mixed it and that was that…”
“It definitely has a Los Angeles feel to it and speaks to all the records I was listening to and the other music I was participating in at the time- all the musical things I was thinking about: Feel, tones, changes… to sit easy in that space we found on the as a band and not push it away."
“I wasn’t really on the road much that year so I thought, Why not use the time to do something constructive? You know, something more than just jam every Tuesday? So I decided to write specifically for that band and the instrumentation and tried to bring in as many new tunes as I could. We had a few weeks in a row when the band was hot so I set up some mics at my studio the next couple days and we pretty much tracked it live- Jay Bellerose joined us and I mixed it and that was that…”
“It definitely has a Los Angeles feel to it and speaks to all the records I was listening to and the other music I was participating in at the time- all the musical things I was thinking about: Feel, tones, changes… to sit easy in that space we found on the as a band and not push it away."
Four Stars
There is something utterly compelling, while appealingly elusive, about Cri$el Gems from Paul Bryan, the bass guitarist and Aimee Mann producer who has produced the album with guitarist Jeff Parker who also appears in a crunchingly groove heavy setting where Lee Pardini on electric piano adds a certain fizz.
Matt Mayhall on drums contributes a robustness to the concision of the largely Bryan-derived tunes, the groove fattened out by Davey Chegwidden's congas and Jay Bellerose's percussion. The album also includes a treatment of the Bryan/Mann song 'It's So Easy to Die.'
- Marlbank.net
Matt Mayhall on drums contributes a robustness to the concision of the largely Bryan-derived tunes, the groove fattened out by Davey Chegwidden's congas and Jay Bellerose's percussion. The album also includes a treatment of the Bryan/Mann song 'It's So Easy to Die.'
- Marlbank.net
ALBUM CREDITS
Jeff Parker - Guitar
Lee Pardini - Electric piano
Paul Bryan - Bass
Matt Mayhall - Drums
Davey Chegwidden - Congas
Jay Bellerose - Percussion
Produced by: Paul Bryan and Jeff Parker
Recorded / Mixed by: Paul Bryan Mastered by: Dave Cooley,
Elysian Mastering
Jeff Parker - Guitar
Lee Pardini - Electric piano
Paul Bryan - Bass
Matt Mayhall - Drums
Davey Chegwidden - Congas
Jay Bellerose - Percussion
Produced by: Paul Bryan and Jeff Parker
Recorded / Mixed by: Paul Bryan Mastered by: Dave Cooley,
Elysian Mastering