Floratone – S/T / 2007 Blue Note / 11 Tracks / http://www.floratone.com / http://www.bluenote.com /
Floratone is as close of an “all star†act that one can get in jazz and free-form experimental music. The two main components of Floratone are Bill Frisell and Matt Chamberlain. For those not in the know, those two individuals together have combined to work with this list of stars: Tori Amos, Morrissey, Stevie Nicks, The Wallflowers, Liz Phair, John Zorn, Loudon Wainwright III, Elvis Costello, Suzanne Vega, and Ryuichi Sakamoto. If that didn’t give Floratone a pedigree, the guest stars will. Viktor Krauss, Ron Miles, and Eyvind Kang all play a major part in the construction of the songs on this disc.
T
There is so much going on during an average Floratone track that individuals will have to spine this nearly-fifty minute disc  a number of times just to get to the bottom of what the band is trying to do here. There are so many genres and influences present during the eleven cuts of the album that It feels that a number of bands are contributing to the mythos that is Floratone. A closer look at the talent of the constituent parts, as well as the neatness of the arrangements, and it becomes clear who exactly are cutting these tracks. While Frisell and Chamberlain will be moving on to different projects in the future, I’d like to see them continue to release albums under this nomen.
Top Tracks: The Future, Frontiers
Rating: 6.2/10