Best of 2018 #43: Rudy Royston – “Flatbed Buggy”

As the go-to drummer for an impressively diverse array of musicians, it’s always been a source of intrigue as to the influences Rudy Royston has absorbed along the way, and those he affected by way of his own perspective.  The answer provided by his excellent 2018 release Flatbed Buggy is “a little bit of both, actually.”  Before Bill Frisell’s recent trip down nostalgia lane, the guitarist was cementing his view of a modern Americana Jazz that incorporated healthy doses of chamber and folk.  Royston was right there for much of that ride, and the sharp differences between his expression of that music from those of Frisell’s, while situating itself as a bird-of-a-feather recording, show that the forces being exerted upon the music were not a one-way conduit of creativity.  The masterful balance of a light tunefulness and heady imagery makes for an intoxicating contrast in reactions, both emotional and cerebral… of complexity presented as simply as a well-crafted melody.

Released on Greenleaf Music.

I wrote about the album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Music from Denver, CO.

Available at:  Bandcamp | Amazon