The Spotty Dog 440 Warren St Hudson Equal parts ambient and virtuosic, melancholic and playful, CJ Boyd's bass playing melts glaciers, creating a sea of low, flowing rhythms, while also supplying melodies that soar over the ocean to melt the sun itself. Waves of bass loops are garnished with harmonica drones and constant improvisational exploration. This is deep-sea-diving for the hungry and alone. While certainly following in the footstep of great bassists like Mingus and Meyer, Boyd's aesthetic sensibility also seeks to wed the minimalism o f Reich and Glass with what might be called the maximalism of Beethoven chamber music. But all this is further complicated by the presence of Boyd's improvisational prowess. Not funky, not a bassplayer's bassplayer exactly, but something refreshing and impressive-improvising with fingers that only know how to dance to the deepest tunes. One thinks Nietzsche might have had CJ in mind when he said, "Maturity consists in regaining the seriousness one had as a child at play." This is child's play for the experienced listener. http://www.cjboyd.bandcamp.com/