Not
to diminish Steve Fowler, the alto sax and flute playing brother of
the Fowler clan of musicians, who composed each track on his debut
and one in the mighty musical Fowler family, overcast on Steve's solo release.
The Fowlers were introduced to America by way of the late, brilliant and universally maniacal musical genius Frank Zappa, who used each and every talent of Fowler in his music since the 1970's, toured with mostly Tom, Bruce and Walt in the 80's. No matter what Fowler you get, you're in for something interesting, certainly doing things their own way, but melodic, listenable fusion with avant-garde touches of class, complexity and progressive edge.
The Fowlers were introduced to America by way of the late, brilliant and universally maniacal musical genius Frank Zappa, who used each and every talent of Fowler in his music since the 1970's, toured with mostly Tom, Bruce and Walt in the 80's. No matter what Fowler you get, you're in for something interesting, certainly doing things their own way, but melodic, listenable fusion with avant-garde touches of class, complexity and progressive edge.
The
Fowler Brothers started doing their own thing aside Frank Zappa in
the mid-1970s with their group Air Pocket before evolving into
The Fowler Brothers. Steve Fowler, along with trombonist Bruce, broke
away further and did their own albums in the Fowler style of music, occasionally tricky and progressive
melodic jazz-fusion. If you liked the jazzier material of Zappa sans
the lewd lyrical talent of the late mad genius and his Mothers, The
Fowler Brothers' independent work is right there for ya. Think of it
as instrumental Zappa.
Like a Fowler album, they're all here: multi-instrumentalist brothers Walt Fowler, on trumpets and
flugelhorns but also electric and acoustic pianos and synthesizers,
Bruce Fowler on trombone, Ed Fowler on bass (not to be confused with
brother Tom Fowler, the Zappa Fowler bassist). Zappa's captured right
here in spirit too from the wonky time signatures, progressive and
souring sound of some arrangements to the silly, cryptic track
naming convention Bikini Paralysis, H.H. for He Is Abnormal
and so on.
Steve
plays only the Alto [in the family of] Saxophones, but actually
surprises further on this album filling most of his airtime with the
flute, which keeps this album from saturating with soloing like the
later Breakfast For Dinosaurs (not a bad thing by any means, sorry
Albert Wing!). If anything, this album's real shine is Steve's flute
harmonies, with his sax mostly captured on the front cover of the
album...
Following
in the shadow of 1986's Hunter, the arrangements are solid, tight,
clean, original and melodic. Each cut begs another listen and it's
largely thanks to Steve deploying the Zappa sound through he and his
brothers. As with any Fowler Brothers' joint, Steve
couldn't get away without a lyrical track They Hang Out with his brother Marvin on
vocals, ominous prog-rock (about prostitutes?) with a flutter of
flutes amongst Mike O'Neill's riffs.
It's
a shame not more people know of the Fowler Brothers' horns, there's
really only one group tried and tested by time to be good enough to
roll with Zappa for all these years and more. While they may not
smoke as hard as how they sounded on Zappa's (Make A Jazz Noise Here)
tours but they're just as extraordinary, just a little more tame but
not nearly numbed nor dumbed.
DIGITAL VERDICT : 9.0 (A-)
NOTABLE
TRACKS: Bikini Paralysis, For H.H. He Is Abnormal, They Hang Out
WHILE
THEY REALLY COULD HAVE: called it Fowler Brothers' second album, it
would've probably been one of the strongest of the bunch.
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