Whoa... this review just came out in Paris Transatlantic-- very complimentary and nice! I miss playing and hanging out with Chris and Juan a lot. I have highlighted the parts about the guitar playing in rust, the traditional color of narcissism.
NAFTA
LINES AS LINES
Ten Pounds To The Sound
Calling your group after an international trade agreement might sound like an odd idea (and it's a bugger of a job trying to get any info on Google as a result), but makes sense when it's a trio consisting of a Canadian, an American and a Mexican: respectively Kurt Newman, guitar, Chris Cogburn, percussion and Juan Garcia, bass. I'm not sure whether there should be one of those pesky little encircled "R"s indicating Registered Trade Mark (or whatever it means) after the name of the group, but as I never add one after Deep Listening and make a point of forgetting the "TM" after Bill Dixon I'm not going to make any exceptions here. Newman hails from Toronto, but until recently was based in Austin Texas, home not only to percussionist Cogburn but to a dynamic and refreshingly dogma-free improvised music scene. Garcia met Cogburn and fellow Texas improv prime mover Dave Dove when he moved to Houston from Monterrey, Mexico at the age of 17. His meaty bass makes a fine foundation for the music to build upon. Cogburn is as good at hitting his instruments as he is at bowing and rubbing them, and Newman's guitar playing is splendid, at times sounding like a koto, at times like Django Reinhardt beamed down to jam with late 90s Polwechsel. If you can't imagine what that could possibly sound like you ought to check it out for yourself. If you can't find one of the elegant hand-stitched CDRs (limited edition of 100), it seems the music is available for download at www.rasbliutto.net/artists/chriscogburn.html and there's also a video of this July 2006 concert at Okay Mountain for you to check out at kurtnewman.blogspot.com/2006/08/nafta-at-okay-mountain.html.–DW
