The Manrilla Blog | Life. Art. Religion. Culture.

The new disc, Duality, from saxophonist Tom Tallitsch is a creative breath of fresh air. The album features Tom on tenor along with my brother, Dave Manley, on guitar. The duo courses through well thought-out originals. Big Sky showcases Tallitsch’s talents as a compser. The duo also interpret some jazz standards such as Steve Swallow’s Falling Grace. Tallitsch’s interpretation of Wayne Shorter’s Infant Eyes is particularly gorgeous. Tallitsch and Manley re-tune a Stevie Wonder pop tune, Visions. The album has a very intimate, earthy feel to it which perfectly matches Tallitsch’s lush tone with Manley’s airy picking. If you’re looking for a jazz album for a present to buy someone but don’t know what to get, this would make a great gift. It’s sure to please the listener and provide hours of revisited pleasure. Duality by Tom Tallitsch. Check out the artist’s site to listen to samples or to order a copy. Great job, Tom. This is a marvelous album.

If you haven’t seen the movie yet and don’t wanna read what goes down, skip to the next post. I went to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with my brother Mike, Scott, Darcy and Jamar. I just recently bought the first book and am reading it now. I was impressed at how readable it is. I thought it would be too kiddy. So I was really looking forward to seeing this one. It wasn’t that it was bad - I just don’t think it was as good as the last one. It felt like it was a T.V. episode verses a movie. It also didn’t seem to climax enough for me. Maybe there were too many sub-plot developments. Hermoine and her new boy friend, who I thought was going to have a bigger role to play and the new kid in the movie who didn’t make it all the way through. Ron getting jealous of Harry. And of course, Ray Finnes as Voldemort. So, while I did like it, I felt that it fell a little short of what I was looking. Question was, what was I looking for?