Bill McBirnie releases LP
URL: http://www.extremeflute.com/portfolio.html
Pop music is a wide ranging umbrella term that we use to describe literally dozens of genres, but among all of them none is as virtuosic and experimental in nature as jazz. Jazz dares to be different, and the players bold enough to take up its pursuit are eclectic minds who live and die by their willingness to break the rules and draw outside the lines. Bill McBirnie and Bernie Senensky don’t hold back in unleashing a splendid palate of rich jazz vitality in their new album The Silent Wish; a record so elegantly structured that it could be mistaken for a classical album were it not for McBirnie’s trademark flute solos. I’ve always been of the belief that when it comes to making an album like The Silent Wish, artists have to remove themselves, and us, from the entire world as we know it to translate what amounts to ethereal transmissions from powers of the beyond. McBirnie and Senensky do a good job of transporting us to that special place over twelve sleekly produced tracks, and the gentle means in which they execute their mission is nothing short of brilliant.
The Silent Wish doesn’t struggle to find an identity, which is a problem that plagues most experimental albums that cover as much ground as McBirnie and Senensky do here. Each of these songs is an intricately styled piece of a larger puzzle that only becomes legible when played together in a single sitting. McBirnie commands our attention start to finish with his dexterous flute harmonies that evoke as much emotion as a fiery sunset fading into a blissfully blue ocean. I think these two knew exactly the kind of record they wanted to make when they got into the studio, and once they had the material that they wanted to put to tape it was all a matter of laying tracks and picking an album cover. Everything is so professionally polished and even handed in melody that I almost wonder if McBirnie wanted this to be his official crossover from specialty to mainstream radio (it’ll likely have the effect regardless).
For an instrumental album, The Silent Wish speaks volumes about the current state of jazz and what we can all expect to hear in the coming years ahead. Too often we jump the gun and decide that a particular genre or scene is on the decline just because of a few silly sales figures, but from where I sit The Silent Wishessentially proves that creativity isn’t mutually exclusive to commercialism. As much as the big major labels might want it to be the case, true artists like Bill McBirnie and Bernie Senensky will never follow the beat of anyone else’s drum because not only do they reject the notion of exploiting their art for profit, they downright despise the concept of industrializing their treasured pastime. Their ethos are heavily reflected in The Silent Wish, and hopefully its message will have a considerably more positive impact on the scene around them than others have in recent memory.
AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H5R9BKW
Mindy McCall
