Artist: The Andy Rothstein Band
Album: Truth Against the World
Label: Vermicious Knid Music
Year Of Release: 2022
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Tracklist:
1. Perfect Storm – 05:00
2. Sdpm – 04:40
3. Blues – 05:53
4. The Witness – 06:12
5. Mystic Mud – 04:04
6. Strum – 04:45
7. Step Out – 03:54
8. Hell Mary – 04:23
9. Funk 7 – 04:37
10. Cab 804 (Samba) – 05:35
11. Truth Against the World – 04:47
Brooklyn-based guitarist and composer Andy Rothstein graduated from Rutgers University, where he studied music and computers. I don’t know how things are with him now with computer knowledge, but the study of music has continued. Andy mastered the guitar at the age of 14, and at the university he studied with such venerable jazzmen as Kevin Eubanks and Ted Dunbar. As a result, he turned out to be an outstanding guitarist (Andy prefers electric guitar) with a penchant for using various “gadgets” when playing. Rothstein has been involved in various projects and has also gained notoriety for his musical transcriptions for guitar.
He made his debut as a leader in 2006 with Voodoo Tone, followed by Wit of the Staircase in 2010, which featured celebrities such as Lew Soloff and Manolo Badrena. Andy Rothstein’s latest work to date is Truth Against the World. To its creation, Andy attracted trumpeter Steve Jankowski and bassist Tony Senatore, who had already worked with him earlier, as well as a number of other equally sophisticated musicians, including vocalist Audrey Martells on two tracks. Almost the entire album is author’s: all the compositions were composed by Rothstein, alone or in collaboration with one of the album’s recording colleagues. The style of this work can be determined already by the first measures of the opening composition Perfect Storm. This is the most characteristic example of fusion music with a solo guitar, in which rock and funk elements are no less important than jazz. Rothstein favors energetic tracks with heavy rhythmic emphasis, and his solos are well supported by Jankowski’s horns (very good in Funk7) and, alternately, by Ken Joffrey and Tom Timko. Both the blues (the composition is called Blues) and Latina (Cab 804 (Samba) look quite worthy in the performance of Rothstein and his band. Both vocal compositions featuring Audrey Martells are typically rock numbers. And the album ends with the title piece, where Zndi Rothstein once again demonstrates to his listeners that everything is in order with creative ideas and technical skills.
