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Reviewed by: Frank Rubolino
Review: Guitar and Keyboards form an interlocked bond on [the Dave Fox Group, Gatewalk], where
the Dave Fox Group skips unencumbered through a program of original material. Fox lays down a
freelanced foundation on keyboards, and Collings spins off rounds of improvised commentary while
bassist Menestres and percussionist Davis develop an impressive unstructured backdrop. Although
keyboard/guitar bands typically lean in the Fusion direction, that is certainly not the case here. This
group plays wide open, aggressive, and highly innovative Jazz rarely heard with this instrumentation.
Fox’s approach on keyboards places the music squarely in the creative improvised sector and is
anything but a compromise to popularity. He produces a plethora of diverse keyboard sounds; his
attack is fully liberated, and his solos are well-designed, spontaneous outpourings.
Fox does introduce some discipline into the equation, typically as initial road markers for the band’s
undefined journeys. “Gatewalk,” for example, begins with a specified theme but immediately curves
off the road onto unpaved, open terrain. Conversely, “Bran Flakes” takes a fully unstructured
developmental route to unpredictable destinations without ever looking at a road map. Menestres
and Davis go off on tangents with regularity, spicing the action with irregular drumbeats and divergent
bass patterns. They keep the sessionin an unbalanced mode, permitting Collings and Fox to become
explorers of their newfound territory. Collings is particularly innovative on guitar; he sings out with
ringing improvisations to mesh precisely with Fox’s probing articulation. This cooks on all burners; the
artists individually take risks yet their collective voices come together as a unified yet abstract
equation. This is the quartet’s first release, but these guys are poised for a leap into the big-time.
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