Gerard Presencer - Platypus - Jazz UK

By happy coincidence, several of our leading trumpet players have brought out new CD's recently, so it seems appropriate to focus on them this time. Perhaps the most eagerly awaited is Gerard Presencer's 'Platypus'. In the few years since he burst on to the national scene, Gerard's supremely accomplished playing has been heard in an amazing variety of settings, but this is the first issue under his own name. no one will be disappointed. Revelling in positive support from pianist Jason Rebello, guitarist John Paricelli, Andrew Cleyndert on drums, Gerard plays flugelhorn with the sort of freshness and lack of inhibition that you usually only expect on 'live' sessions. Of the eight original pieces, he says simply that his aim was to create 'a mixture of simply what I like' without being constrained by conventional stylistic restrictions. The whole band hits some marvellous grooves here, and it's a safe bet that lots of other people will like it too.