David Bixler & Arturo O’Farrill
The Auction Project
Zoho Records
www.zohomusic.com
By George W. Harris

On paper, this mix of latin assertiveness and attitude provided by Arturo O’Farrill with traditional Scottish and Irish tunes in the hands of David Bixler’s alto sax and Heather Bixler’s violin sounds like an absolute winner. However, so have the Chicago Cubs for half of their existence, and they haven’t won a World Series since 08. What went wrong here? Trad isle tunes like “The Chicken Went To Scotland” and “Banish Misfortune” are carried on the back of Bixler’s lovely violin, but other tunes like “June 28, 07” and “Heptagonesque” are just too jagged and oblique, making the musical boundaries more like enemy lines than points of diplomacy.