While Cherry had center stage in his first CD and used the venue to explore the wonderful musical possibilities in the Afro American spiritual songbook, on this CD he is joined by three young musical lions that are producing some of the freshest most rewarding sound to be heard.  While there is a distinct Mingusonian characteristic fast forwarded some 40 years about this CD, there is also a distinct futurism about this music.  The harmonic interplay of KRILL's reeds up front with John Dierker and Evan Rapport, continuously driven forward by an uncomplicated yet sophisticatedly subtle bass line is such a rewarding vision of the future.

The reward is made even more sweet by the fact that there is a clear stylistic tension between the front line and the back rhythm row of Cherry and Redman.  And, contrary to what you might think, the tension actually works to unify the group.  So while Rapport and Dierker are very comfortable developing an abstract phraseology and conversation up front, actually based on some rather traditional chord changes in places, their language translates in the most simple to understand terms...because Cherry and Redman are in the background making the translations that we all can understand.  One can only hope that the concept represents a path that others may choose to follow.  If so, this is where it began.

We have no special insight as to the genealogy of the group's name, but if the intent was to lay down an association down the small little animals that form the foundation of the ocean's food chain and a sound that could form the foundation of today's new music...well, these guys have done it.  For too long the sound associated with labels like "free jazz," "new music," "improv jazz," even "ecstatic jazz," has been far too angry and full of frustration to  rise above itself.  No doubt some artists find these qualities to be essential components in their  creative endeavor, but when focused on to the exclusion of all the other emotions in the human repertoire, the music rings hollow.   On this CD, KRILL has found a balance of emotion in its music that has the potential to be as important to the future of jazz as the krill are to the future of the oceans.

We knew that there was something special about this CD when one of our customers wrote to us recently to say that he had been listening to this CD every night while laying in bed before going to sleep...he was so moved by the depth and range of emotion this music engendered that he needed to hear it again and again.   Indeed, a personal affirmation of his own existence, his own life.  There simply aren't that many CDs coming out today that inspire that kind of deep listenership.