Postcards from the Past, by Gary Husband
Gary Husband has had a remarkable career. He was a member of Level 42 with Jack Bruce and played with Bill Evans and Billy Cobham, among dozens of collaborators. The British multi-instrumentalist has recorded on his own for several decades, and his newest album, Postcards from the Past, dives for gems in his personal archive of unreleased material.
The two-CD set occupies a wide musical spectrum. The edgy piano of “Bing of the Dale” suggests McCoy Tyner. Working with guitarist Allan Holdsworth, “Water on the Brain” is prog, while the cacophonous “The Disguise” brings to mind the ‘70s NYC avant-garde loft jazz scene. “Not Even the Rain” could sit comfortably in the ECM catalog, “City Nights 1993” is straight-up fusion and “Reykjavik Dream” is a synthesized soundscape. One of the best treats is Husband’s meditative take on Chick Corea’s “500 Miles Hight,” complete with a thrumming bass line lifted from John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme.” Postcards from the Past may send listeners scrambling to hear what else Husband has been doing since his emergence in the late ‘70s.
