Gerard Presencer - Platypus - The Journal International

The opening track, a very canny rearrangement of Bobby Timmons's Moanin', is a reference to the earliest days of funk and soul-jazz, but by and large Presencer's retro touchstones here seem to be the 1970s recordings of players like Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw. Still Moanin' is actually an intriguing composite of three periods, grafting onto Timmons's 1958 theme the wah-wah, stereo panning, phase-shifting and 120bpm dance rhythms of the 19710s and the hip harmony and sleek production values of the 1990s. Thus the agenda for the record is declared, and with the exception of the atypical ballad Afterthought, more suggestive of Kenny Wheeler and Ralph Towner than Freddie Hubbard, Presencer pursues his updated 1970s course with little deviation. After the novelty of his first encounter with his take on the past there are few stylistic surprises, and a touch more idiomatic variety would not have gone amiss, but within his chosen area, Presencer is absolutely successful.

Stylistic considerations aside, the playing throughout is superb, with excellent solos from Presencer, Paricelli and Rebello, the latter showing no ill-effects from his sabbatical from music a year or two ago. In all then a powerful debut from this young veteran (still only 22).