Matt Ulery’s Loom
Flora. Fauna. Fervor
482 Music
www.482 music.com
By George W. Harris

Bassist/composer Matt Ulery likes to combine genre’s of music, mixing classical, folk and jazz to intriguing results. He put out a disc a couple of years ago that was quite enticing as it leaned toward modern classical and British Isle folk music. This time around, he and his group Loom (Thad Franklin/tp, Tim Haldeman/ts, Rob Clearfield/p-acc, Zach Brock/violin, Katie Wiegman/vib, aJon Deitemyer/dr) he learns more toward the jazzy side as he lets the horns stretch out quite a bit on “The Queen,” “When I Think Of You” and “Great Full.” The melodies themselves have a rich and compositional wholeness to them, and the fact is that to my ears the fairly abstract solos detract from, rather than add to, the sophisticated themes. “A Winds A Blowin” and “Shadow Ballerina” have so many different movements and strata that the variations stand up all on their own, while “High City/Low City” has an Ellingtonian completeness. Clearfield creates various moods as he goes from accordion to electric piano, veering the band between jazz fusion and Irish Pub folk. A good listen.