Fabliaux by Dave Douglas & Monash Art Ensemble has received a five star review from The Australian:

“Douglas, on trumpet, leads 15 members of the Monash Art Ensemble, comprising four woodwinds, three brass, four strings and four percussion, including electronics. They open with the stately ensemble fanfares of Forbidden Flags, traversing it via Marty Holoubek’s contrabass and Craig Beard’s pitched percussion to Douglas’s triumphantly soaring solo.

Frieze begins with a subdued ensemble passage of Rob Burke’s clarinet, Mirko Guerrini on bass clarinet and Lauchlan Davidson’s soprano sax, gradually evolving atonally into an out-of-tempo high-treble wild spree. Strings come to the fore in rolling, calming sequences for Wagon Wheels, and then as guitar and bass provide a travelling foundation and tempo slides away, pizzicato violin leads into the theme to close.

Unlike most of these tracks, Tower of the Winds commences with a rhythmic beat as clarinet, flute and Jordan Murray’s trombone weave around Douglas’s invigorated trumpet ahead of ensemble marching chord stabs, powered by Kieran Rafferty’s speedy drumming, all dissolving into an extended, improvised piano solo of building intensity by Grabowsky.”

Read the entire review here.

Learn more about the album here.

Purchase: Bandcamp | iTunes | Amazon

If you’re in Australia, you can order the album from our wonderful partner label Jazzhead.