Dirty
Linen Magazine, 01
April
2000
Bachue
- "A Certain Smile"
"Without a doubt, A Certain Smile is one of the most successful mixtures
of jazz and Celtic. It doesn't just add a few jazz chords and stir, but Bachué
makes it sound as if tunes like 'The Rights of Man' or 'Kissin' is the Best
of A'' were meant to be jazz standards.
"The piano and harp working on the fiddle tunes together is a great combination, and both Hewat and Milligan give inspired performances. On tracks such as 'Walk' (which starts with the tune "Gravel Walk"), the piano and harp stride along with each other for a while and then begin to race, each seeming to try to outpace the other.
*Most of the material is traditional, but there are a fair number of original tunes and pieces by other contemporary composers. The music is instrumentally dazzling, but on top of that is the intriguing treatment of songs such as 'My Johnny was a Shoemaker', 'If I Was a Blackbird' and a brilliant version of 'Loving Hannah'.
"Backup
musicians on some of the tracks include Phil Bancroft on saxes and Davy Cattanach
on percussion. Bachué builds an atmosphere around their sound. This is the kind
of thing someone like Chet Baker might have played, had he strayed into Scottish
music. This is an intriguing release that ought to make a lot of folks perk
up their ears."
IVAN EMKE