Kyle Eastwood’s ‘Songs from the Chateau’ CD is Big, Boisterous and Jazzy

: Kyle Eastwood.

By Danny R. Johnson

LOS ANGELES – The Songs from the Chateau CD is acoustic and electric bassist, Kyle Eastwood’s most ambitious work to date since the release of his first album, From There to Here, in 1998. The nine tracks on the Songs from the Chateau CD are earthy, brassy and lush, somber and jubilant, boisterous and tender – all qualities found in Eastwood’s previously known works, but on a larger scale in this CD.

Kyle Eastwood, 43, the eldest son of actor and film director/producer, Clint Eastwood, has matured and mellowed quite admirably as an authentic and gifted artist, who has blazed his own trail in the music world. His fourth album, Songs from the Chateau, is further evidence of his equanimity as a jazz artist, composer and arranger. Eastwood and his ensemble secluded themselves into the Couronneau in Lingueux, a 15th century chateau in the French Bordeaux country, and collaborated this magnificent work of art. Although it was recorded in Bordeaux, most of the record was written on the road and at rehearsals while Eastwood and his band were on tour in the spring and summer of 2010. As the tour progressed, so did arrangements and concepts for the album. By the time they got to recording at Chateau Couronneau, the band was already very comfortable with the music and was free to let the beautiful setting inspire them.

The ensemble consisted of Andrew McCormack on piano and electric piano, Graeme Flowers playing trumpet and flugelhorn, Graeme Blevins on tenor and soprano saxophones, Martyn Kaine on drums, and of course, Eastwood on acoustic and electric bass. Eastwood managed to produce some unmistakably rich chords, and even gutsier sounds on several of the tunes on this CD.

Songs from the Chateau is definitely a jazz lover’s delight if you like complex, but smooth contemporary jazz arrangements. For every swinging section or sumptuous melody, there are stretches of seething drama – turbulent dialogues, improvisations floating in ambiguous harmony, shards of simultaneous melody, private soliloquies, grumbles and tempests. Those sections of Songs from the Chateau – including Marciac, to the vibe of Moon Over Couronneau, and the rhythmically shuffles of Soul Captain, are tunes which invokes a romantic sweep, evoking inchoate moods and ideas, grand conflicts and stray inspirations, which eventually coalesces into hard-swinging jazz.

Eastwood utilizes “pattern bassist” techniques on several tracks, which is a series of funk rhythms syncopated and complex, while still serving as the rhythmic foundation. A perfect example is The Café Calypso piece, which is of a Latin and Caribbean musical flavor. In this particular piece, Eastwood repeats a two-measure riff while the saxophonist adds sharply contrasting layers of polyrhythm.

Rendezvous Music recording artist, Kyle Eastwood, proves once again in Songs from the Chateau CD that the bass is the rock on which the jazz ensemble is built. Throughout this CD, you can hear and appreciate the horns, piano, and drums – but Eastwood’s preeminent execution of boisterous acoustic and electric bass playing techniques are absolute, and on full display for the world to hear and enjoy.