Never Odd or Even

Keyboardist Kyle Hollingsworth is more commonly seen on-stage with Boulder, Colorado's legendary jam band the String Cheese Incident (and with the more locally famous Remarkable Elma Kramer). For his debut solo release, though, he focuses on the kind of jazzy funk that fans of Medeski, Martin & Wood will recognize immediately, and the result is delightful. Several tracks on this album, such as "¡Bam!" and "Boo-Boo's Pik-a-Nik," are longstanding staples of the String Cheese Incident live set, but are given dramatically different treatments here; others are original compositions that have never been performed or recorded before. One of the most striking of these, "The Preacher," is actually a group improvisation inspired by the sound of a female television preacher whose sermon Hollingsworth captured on a mini-disc recorder; the resulting sound is strongly reminiscent of David Byrne and Brian Eno's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. Other highlights include the Latin-flavored "Not Yet" and the heart-wrenching "Don't Say," which is a song written around the time of Hollingsworth's mother's death and is the only track to feature his vocals. This is an emotionally and musically intricate and highly satisfying album.