CD Review - Right On

The FCO’s ‘Right On’ was voted in Cadence Magazine’s Editor’s Choice top 25 albums of 1999. Their review of the album follows.

The Boston-based Fully Celebrated Orchestra is ironically, neither fully celebrated, nor particularly orchestral. Instead, they are a hard-working trio who have been developing their collective approach to improvisation since the mid ’80’s, with three previous releases. Though the liner notes to this release would have one believe that these three are iconoclasts who defy categorization, they have clearly spent time listening to both Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry. Not that there is anything wrong with that. All three dive into this set of eight originals with fervent abandon. They hit the simple, anthemic heads and then charge off on searing melodic excursions. Hobbs is the clear leader here. His crying, acidic tone full of wild vibrato and his energetic, leaping phrasing provide the main focus throughout. Bassist Shanko provides the anchor, as his fat singing bass lines provide a melodic foil to Hobbs’ alto and a propulsive momentum to the music. Carranza’s drumming is loose and open, providing a rock-like energy to the trio. Their pieces tend to lurch and leap in fits and starts, as march rhythms tumble into legato melodies or bounding shuffles cascade into free arching jagged flurries. At times the music seems ready to burst at the seams, driven by an edgy explosive abandon. There always the sense that these three are pushing themselves, which can act to their detriment when their improvisations start to fragment and they lose focus. But there is enough here to prove that this trio is full of energetic dedication.

Michael Rosenstein,
Cadence Magazine
March 1999