With every well-placed note and every incisive solo on Nick Moran's new album No Time Like Now, the guitarist brings an urgent creative agenda to the table. It features organist Brad Whiteley and drummer Chris Benham, both rising players on the New York scene. An impressive follow-up to Moran's 2007 debut, The Messenger, No Time Like Now is a potent trio session that focuses on Moran's stirring compositions and arrangements, venturesome material that consistently moves beyond organ combo conventions.
Raised on rock and blues, Moran acknowledges and deconstructs his roots with the opening track, transforming Cream's 1967 hit "Strange Brew" into a surprisingly effective jazz/funk vehicle. The band further explores the blues with the funky "Say Hi to Paris," a tribute to the great New York blues singer Frankie Paris, and "The Physicist Transformed," which is set in five, based on an extended blues form, and builds to a climactic drum solo."My Beautiful" displays Moran's gift for writing long, episodic melodies, and the deliberately paced "Intention" was inspired by his studies with bass legend Ron Carter. "I wanted the bass part to have a melodic function," Moran says. "And the drums are all color, so Chris plays the cymbals with that sheen of sound."With "Slow Drive," the mode abruptly switches to badass funk, propelled by surging organ lines and Moran's diamond clean guitar tone. Inspired by an idea from Jeff Beck, "Wishful Thinking" is an angular tune that subtly changes meter while Whiteley maintains a propulsive bass ostinato. "I wanted the time signature to change in mid-stream without the listener noticing. It should feel completely natural.""Natalya" is a heartbreaking funeral march that Moran wrote in honor of the fearless Chechen human rights activist Natalya Estemirova after reading about her assassination in 2009. He composed the album's elegiac title track thinking about a phone conversation with a close friend that turned out to be their last communication before his unexpected death. While it's a tribute, it's also a meditation on the preciousness of each moment. The album closes with "Renewal," another composition that evolves in unexpected directions. With three distinct sections, the piece captures the trio at its most cohesive, from the flowing opening statement through its optimistic conclusion.
Tracklist:1. Strange Brew2. My Beautiful
3. Intention
4. Slow Drive
5. Wishful Thinking
6. No Time Like Now
7. Say Hi to Paris
8. Natalya
9. The Physicist Transformed
10. Renewal
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