Recordings

Track Listing:

Ray Comiskey - The Irish Times
FUZZYLOGICENSEMBLE Mouthpiece ****
On this second CD by composer/ keyboardist Dylan Rynhart's Fuzzy Logic, his writing, though clearly by the same hand (six pieces are his, two by ensemble members Brian Wynne and Nick Roth), is an obvious advance on his fine debut. The voicings are richer and more varied and there's a particularly deft sense of proportion to the development of texture and counterpoint. Replacing cello, French horn and clarinet with tenor, soprano and electric bass has enhanced the ensemble, while solo options are increased not only by Joe O'Callaghan (guitar) and the brilliant Tom Arthurs (guesting on trumpet and flugelhorn), but also by Wynne (tenor) and Cathal Roche (soprano). And the complex ensembles, thanks to conductor Florian Ross, are among the best executed by an Irish jazz ensemble. Standout examples of a uniquely conceived project include Flip Shuffle, Dusty Time and The Difference between Light and Hard.

Kevin Stevens - The Journal of Music
Dylan Rynhart / FUZZYLOGICENSEMBLE Mouthpiece

BIG MOUTH - Ideas you don't often encounter in a big band

FUZZYLOGICENSEMBLE is Ireland's largest and longest-running big band - or "contemporary improvising ensemble" as composer and founder Dylan Rynhart prefers to describe the group. This distinction is important. "Big band" can connote music of the swing era or a conventional reeds-and-brass, riffs-and-solos approach that is far from Fuzzy Logic's sound range and musical vocabulary. Yet the band is very much part of a jazz tradition that goes back to Duke Ellington, using extended forms and varied instrumentation to create a broad range of sonorities and textures. Like Gil Evans and Bob Brookmeyer, Rynhart writes music with a compelling balance of highly arranged orchestral passages and carefully chosen solos. And like Brookmeyer's protégé Maria Schneider, he searches out non-traditional rhythmic and ethnic influences to create twenty-first-century music that is both sharply executed and expressively open-ended.

Mouthpiece is the ensemble's second recording, and its flowing lines and tight sound are evidence of the band's longevity and its success in articulating its founder's vision. Much credit is due to Rynhart, who continues to drive the group with hard work and good-natured advocacy. Credit must also go to Florian Ross, conductor and musical director of the pieces on this album, and of course to the musicians, whose collective dedication is matched by inspired execution and inventive soloing.

The album's centrepiece is the title track, which takes as its point of departure a fragment of a speech recording of Rynhart's mother, Justine, in which she speaks of a painting done by her stepmother. Her words carries themes of family, creativity and legacy into the piece, but they also allow Rynhart, who transcribed his mother's voice musically and arranged the tune's melodies around its rhythms, to explore the dimension the spoken word brings to music - hardly a new concept, but one you don't often encounter in the big-band tradition.

The shifting, multi-textured density of "Mouthpiece" is very satisfying and characterises the album as a whole, especially "Flip Shuffle", with its lilting melody and intriguing rhythms; the Zappaesque "There is so much to Smile about", featuring Joe O'Callaghan's fluid guitar and Sue Rynhart's airy vocals; and the quirky "Dusty Time", which surprises at every turn. Rynhart sticks mostly to Fender Rhodes on this outing, and it would have been good to hear more of his swirling Hammond organ, which enlivens tenor saxophonist Brian Wynne's piece "Order Later". Nick Roth's composition "pliARS", with Roth's ferocious alto sax weaving through the tune's Middle Eastern rhythms, is also a highlight. The musicianship is brilliant throughout, particularly Roth and guest soloist Tom Arthurs on trumpet.

FUZZYLOGICENSEMBLE has been a prominent feature of the local Dublin scene over six years, so it is appropriate that the album has been so handsomely packaged and presented by Diatribe and the Improvised Music Company, who have both done so much to document this very productive period in Irish jazz.

Cormac Larkin - The Sunday Tribune
Dylan Rynhart / FUZZYLOGICENSEMBLE Mouthpiece ****
Composer and keyboardist Dylan Rynhart has been leading his nine-piece ensemble for the last seven years and it just keeps getting better. Mouthpiece is their second recording and marks a considerable advance on their first, New Hat. The leader's writing has become more assertive, with stronger melodies and more space for the soloists, and he has drawn into the ensemble several players, including guitarist Joe O'Callaghan and saxophonist Brian Wynne. Produced by German conductor Florian Ross and featuring top UK trumpeter Tom Arthurs, Fuzzy Logic now rate among the most daring and original musical ensembles working in Ireland today.

Track Listing:

Ray Comiskey - The Irish Times
FUZZYLOGICENSEMBLE New Hat ****
This is the debut CD of composer/ arranger and Hammond organist Dylan Rynhart's Fuzzy Logic, a tentet using voice, cello, drums and a wind instrument spread of trumpet, trombone, french horn, alto and clarinet, plus the leader's keyboard. Playing Rynhart's compositions and arrangements, the group reinforces the good impression created by its unique sound and committed public performances. Rynhart's signature is on the writing, tinged with some of Kenny Wheeler's quirkiness, if not his lyricism; it's adept, constantly engaging, full of colour and packed with incident - sometimes, perhaps, too abundantly - while his use of counterpoint, though frequent, is crafted with clarity and variety. It remains a band utterly unlike anything else around, and full of surprises, almost all good.

Cormac Larkin - The Sunday Tribune
FUZZYLOGICENSEMBLE New Hat ****
One of the surest signs that the future of Irish jazz is in safe hands has to be the emergence over the last couple of years of composer and organist Dylan Rynhart and his Fuzzy Logic Ensemble. Most of this 10-piece group, that includes cello and voice as well as a clatter of horns, are still in their 20s, but they play the leader’s quirky compositions with an assurance well beyond their years. Rynhart’s deft arranging for this unusual line-up particularly impresses, recalling the master, Kenny Wheeler.