Addison Project - Mood Swings

Richard Addison is a bass player, composer and arranger of note, being much in demand as a session musician and has featured in the pages of Guitar Player Magazine and Canadian Musician.  He played on the first two albums of prog rockers, Mystery, and founded the jazz-rock outfit, Sojourn, producing their first album.  He has also composed music for television and has acted as music arranger for several singers.  Lucky for us he found time in his busy schedule to produce Mood Swings, his latest work.

Mood Swings consists of nine tracks combining prog and jazz-fusion.  The Addison Project consists of ten musicians (on this album anyway) plus, of course, Richard Addison.  One of the guitarists is non other than Unicorn Records boss, Michel St-Pière, who plays on the first four tracks.

Saxophones, drums (electric and acoustic), guitars, piano and keyboards all feature as does the bass guitar of Richard Addison and we’re left in no doubt that these are class musicians.  It is credit to Richard’s compositions and arrangements as well as the quality of performance that the music comes across as ‘free-flow’ and unconstrained whilst always controlled.  These are the sort of musicians you would like to design a theatre around as few venues exist that would do them justice or indeed fit the mood.

The music, entirely instrumental if you hadn’t guessed, is purposeful rather than aggressive.  Or to put it another way, gentle in it’s aggressiveness.  If the Addison Project had been on the scene some 35 years ago, the name would have been as famous now as say Dave Brubeck or Herbie Hancock and there’s no reason to suppose it won’t be, depending on exposure.

Fusion and jazz-progger’s will be in their element with this album.  And prog lovers who have yet to venture into prog’s sister camp, Mood Swings would be an excellent start.  Addison Project are a class act.  Nice!

Jem Jedrzejewski

Unicorn Records

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