Review: David Budway- A New Kiss

Classical recital by David Budway at YouTube.

Jazz musicians are accustomed to all sorts of indignities. Pianist David Budway would be justified if he feels slighted by the way the individual tracks from the CD version his new album A New Kiss are labeled when ripped to iTunes.

"Japanese Brunch," the first track, is credited to Marcus Strickland. Sure, the saxophonist who guests on the selection is one of the "it" players of moment, but still… The second song is listed as "Brandon Marsalis" [sic]. Sure enough, the star is featured on the ballad, but c'mon man! Tracks 3 through 9 are credited to Jeff "Tain" Watts. An insult? Maybe. Yet the drummer has never sounded better. Guitarist Ron Affif takes the honors on the tenth song and accordionist Joe "Sonny" Barbato is listed on the final track, a fascinating fusion of Arabic sounds and jazz already familiar to fans of Kansas City-based band Alaturka.

I typically don't pay much attention to the way individual MP3s are tagged, so maybe this is merely business as usual. It's also conceivable that Budway approved of these tags, viewing the concept as a savvy marketing ploy by the consistently excellent MaxJazz label. Budway may not have a particularly salable name, but A New Kiss shows that he's a formidable pianist. His solo rendition of "'Round Midnight" is great and his unaccompanied take on "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" is absolutely stunning. "Love You Tonight" is one of the prettiest things I've heard in 2011.

Anyone fortunate enough to hear A New Kiss will know that it ultimately doesn't matter who gets the credit for the remarkable music the album contains.

EDIT: Clayton McDonnell of MaxJazz responds:
Thanks for your review of Budway’s recording. We’re aware of the Branford misspelling and are having it fixed. Obviously, we didn’t deliver it that way since other services, including Amazon, have his name spelled correctly. When our distributor encodes a recording for digital distribution we provide them as much information as possible, and listing the personnel is the only way a consumer will know who appears on the recording. We feel it’s important these musicians are recognized. Once the content is delivered, it’s out of our control as to how each retailer will list the information. Both iTunes and Amazon have the names listed the way we intended, with Budway appearing first. Keep in mind the cover art also appears next to each track, so if ‘Tain’ is listed first, at least the customer has the cover art as a reference. If you want to let me know which retailer you were using I’ll see that the mistakes are corrected. These are just some of the challenges we’re facing in the digital environment. If you feel inclined to update your blog with any of this information we would appreciate it.

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(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)