Classical Driscoll Phil Phil Driscoll - The Quiet (1999)
Phil Driscoll - The Quiet (1999)
Phil Driscoll - The Quiet (1999)
1 The Prophet 5:41 2 Hourglass 6:02 3 Peaceful Waters 5:43 4 The Flight 7:09 5 Carefree 6:43 6 The Walk 5:38 7 Song For My Father 5:30 8 Spirit Rain 4:27 9 The Quiet 5:46 10 Reflections 5:02 Art Direction – Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks, Inc Bass – Abraham Laboriel Drums – Bill Maxwell Guitar – Michael Thompson, Dean Parks Percussion – Alex Acuña Piano, Organ – Bill Mason, Billy Preston Synthesizer – Greg Mathieson Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Horn [Flumpet], Horn [Ram's Horn] – Phil Driscoll
Phil Driscoll always seems to have a new recording - there are 30 albums available from his website! He returns here with his first completely original instrumental album, featuring some of the best West Coast musicians around, eg, Abraham Laboriel and Alex Acuna. Personally, I'm a bit of a sucker for West Coast jazz so I'm biased towards this type of music to mellow to late at night when the lights are down low, but looking objectively, it's not everyone's thing. This is not a collection of jamming sessions, apart from the first track, where Phil plays the ramshorn, all the tracks feature his hallmark trumpet and flugelhorn being used mainly as a vocalist within a song structure. The mood, as suggested by the title, is contemplative and is paraphrased on his website as "The Quiet. In the stillness of the morning, with the quiet of the dawn, when gentle rains must fall." Track names such as "Spirit Rain" and "Reflections" indicate the general direction. There are movements towards fusion a la early Terje Rypdal in the title track and similarities with much of Windham Hill's catalogue. While not quite as completely polished as a Bob James record perhaps, and despite a couple of cheesy moments, this is well worth a mellow-out! ---Matthew Cordle, crossrhythms.co.uk
CCM trumpeter/singer Phil Driscoll was born November 9, 1947 in Seattle, and by the age of three was already playing a plastic trombone and Hawaiian slack guitar. While a freshman at Baylor University he formed the school's first jazz band, and as a sophomore recorded his first album, 1969's A Touch of Trumpet, with the Stockholm Symphony Orchestra. During his senior year, Driscoll took top honors on the CBS television talent-search series The All American College Bowl for a dozen weeks running, once even beating the aspiring pop duo of siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter; after completing 1970's Blowin' a New Mind he moved into secular pop music, composing material for acts including Joe Cocker, Stephen Stills, Blood, Sweat & Tears and Leon Russell. Driscoll returned to the Christian music fold with 1981's Ten Years After, and with 1983's I Exalt Thee scored a Dove Award for Instrumental Album Of the Year as well as Grammy nomination in the Best Gospel/Pop Album category. Both 1985's Power of Praise and 1987's Make Us One took home Dove Awards as well, and in the years to follow Driscoll lent his soulful, pop-influenced sound to everything from children's songs (1989's Gabe and the Good News Gang) to patriotic material (1990's Celebrate Freedom) to R&B (1990's Innerman) to seasonal favorites (1993's The Sound of Christmas). In 1996 he expanded into the television ministry with the show The Voice of Praise; that same year, the album A Different Man launched the hit "Christ Remains." Driscoll even turned to country music with 1997's Shine the Light; Simple Song followed two years later, and in the spring of 2000 he issued two new LPs, Plugged In and Quiet. ---Jason Ankeny, allmusic.com
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