The genesis of Colorado group County Road X's unusual sound lies in bandleader Erik Deutsch's choice of instruments. His piano and keyboard parts lie at the center of that sound, but to them he adds James Hoskins' cello and Glenn Taylor's pedal steel guitar, which doesn't so much introduce classical and country influences as it does striking tonal colors. All of that was true on the band's self-titled debut album, but there are more sounds, albeit conventional jazz ones, on the second album, From Seed to Stone, because of the addition of Jon Gray's trumpet and Jon Stewart's reeds. Still, this is anything but a conventional jazz band, or a conventional band of any sort, for that matter. It's not that one hasn't heard something like this before; the cool jazz of the Dave Brubeck Quartet is clearly an influence, as is the esoteric sound of the Paul Winter Consort, and there are moments in the pieces when one wouldn't be surprised to hear Van Morrison or Steely Dan's Donald Fagen suddenly begin to sing. Various new age performers of the 1980s also come to mind. But Deutsch and his compatriots have carved out their own area of instrumental music that begins with and is anchored by the keyboardist's repetitive riffs, which allow the others to go off on tangents without ever getting lost. This is both exploratory and rigorous music; it has a sense of being composed, and even occasionally catchy, while still allowing plenty of room for multiple improvisations. With the horns joining the fray, there are moments that almost recall Dixieland wailing, except, of course, that at the same time the rhythm section is playing something that sounds Middle Eastern while Deutsch makes like George Winston. Such assertive, almost chaotic playing may be followed by passages so quiet as to be practically ambient. County Road X's music seems, at any given moment, like it could go anywhere, but the sense of order, the impression that conscious decisions are being made, is never lost. The band synthesizes existing styles and reinvents them, suggesting that the remaining possibilities in improvisational music are far from being exhausted, at least for these players.
© William Ruhlmann /TiVo