The Spirit Speaks

David Bond Group

Vineyard Records

…

The Spirit Speaks

David Bond Group

Vineyard Records

Recommended if you like: The Bad Plus, some John Coltrane

The current college generation doesn’t seem to have a deep-rooted love for jazz. Then again, no one can wear a Charles Mingus T-shirt or have Thelonious Monk patches or pins all over his or her backpack, so it’s not like anyone can wear it on his or her sleeve.

Regardless, jazz is something that shouldn’t be taken for granted. Artists like Ornette Coleman, Bo Diddley and Dave Brubeck should be played on more radio stations — not just by the poorly funded jazz stations of today.

However, the David Bond Group isn’t Mingus. It isn’t Coleman or Monk. This jazz quartet isn’t really anything special.

The band plays well together. David Bond, the saxophone player, is decent at what he does, but sometimes his music sounds like elevator music. Meanwhile, pianist Bob Butta does a pretty good job of mixing things up, but doesn’t do anything that screams — “this is what makes me a great piano player.”

The rest of the band sits idly in the background doing what they do–not much.

To listen to a band that doesn’t do much in terms of their music isn’t as much fun as, say, watching grass grow. It’s too much small change that doesn’t do anything. It becomes too consistently inconsistent, and thus boring. Smooth, but still boring.

However, the music is rather pleasant. It’s not something that’ll distract you from work or keep your mind on your radio — distracting you from the road, causing a four-car pile-up.

It’s suitable for easy listening and eating at a nice sit-down restaurant like Joe Mama’s, but not the kind of record you’d really pick out of a crowd and listen to because you can’t get enough of that David Bond Group.

This band should “jazz” it up.