[TR24][OF] Bill Ware and the Club Bird All Stars - Martian Sunset - 2025 (Jazz)

Lossless Audio Checker 2.0.7 logfile from Friday 28 November 2025 05:13:50 PM
File:   E:\Downloads\Music\Jazz\Bill Ware and the Club Bird All Stars - Martian Sunset - 2025 (24-44)\01. Around the Horn.flac
Result: Clean
File:   E:\Downloads\Music\Jazz\Bill Ware and the Club Bird All Stars - Martian Sunset - 2025 (24-44)\02. That Dirty Road.flac
Result: Clean
File:   E:\Downloads\Music\Jazz\Bill Ware and the Club Bird All Stars - Martian Sunset - 2025 (24-44)\03. Safer Journey.flac
Result: Clean
File:   E:\Downloads\Music\Jazz\Bill Ware and the Club Bird All Stars - Martian Sunset - 2025 (24-44)\04. Little Lizzard.flac
Result: Clean
File:   E:\Downloads\Music\Jazz\Bill Ware and the Club Bird All Stars - Martian Sunset - 2025 (24-44)\05. Martian Sunset.flac
Result: Clean
File:   E:\Downloads\Music\Jazz\Bill Ware and the Club Bird All Stars - Martian Sunset - 2025 (24-44)\06. In a Spiral.flac
Result: Clean
File:   E:\Downloads\Music\Jazz\Bill Ware and the Club Bird All Stars - Martian Sunset - 2025 (24-44)\07. Happy Bird.flac
Result: Clean
File:   E:\Downloads\Music\Jazz\Bill Ware and the Club Bird All Stars - Martian Sunset - 2025 (24-44)\08. Don't Take Me Wrong.flac
Result: Clean
File:   E:\Downloads\Music\Jazz\Bill Ware and the Club Bird All Stars - Martian Sunset - 2025 (24-44)\09. Hangin' At the Rez.flac
Result: Clean
File:   E:\Downloads\Music\Jazz\Bill Ware and the Club Bird All Stars - Martian Sunset - 2025 (24-44)\10. Dog Furr.flac
Result: Clean
File:   E:\Downloads\Music\Jazz\Bill Ware and the Club Bird All Stars - Martian Sunset - 2025 (24-44)\11. All the Way Down.flac
Result: Clean
File:   E:\Downloads\Music\Jazz\Bill Ware and the Club Bird All Stars - Martian Sunset - 2025 (24-44)\12. Blue Alteration.flac
Result: Clean

foobar2000 2.0 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2025-11-28 17:14:21
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Analyzed: Bill Ware and the Club Bird All Stars / Martian Sunset
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DR         Peak         RMS     Duration Track
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DR13      -0.63 dB   -15.30 dB      6:28 01-Around the Horn
DR12      -1.47 dB   -16.25 dB      5:32 02-That Dirty Road
DR11      -0.38 dB   -16.91 dB      4:39 03-Safer Journey
DR13      -1.07 dB   -15.14 dB      6:08 04-Little Lizzard
DR11      -0.78 dB   -15.79 dB      3:10 05-Martian Sunset
DR12      -1.34 dB   -15.79 dB      6:50 06-In a Spiral
DR12      -0.71 dB   -15.19 dB      6:01 07-Happy Bird
DR12      -0.13 dB   -14.97 dB      6:32 08-Don't Take Me Wrong
DR12      -0.53 dB   -14.53 dB      5:04 09-Hangin' At the Rez
DR11      -1.13 dB   -15.19 dB      4:40 10-Dog Furr
DR12      -1.23 dB   -14.92 dB      6:09 11-All the Way Down
DR11      -1.76 dB   -14.76 dB      4:47 12-Blue Alteration
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Number of tracks:  12
Official DR value: DR12
Samplerate:        44100 Hz
Channels:          2
Bits per sample:   24
Bitrate:           1531 kbps
Codec:             FLAC
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Bill Ware - vibraphone
Rez Abbasi - guitar
Matt King - piano
Jay Anderson - bass
Taru Alexander - drums

Even the most prodigious and focused composers can be struck by the need to reset. Vibraphonist and composer Bill Ware had been on an ambitious mission to write a vast catalog of music when he was struck by the need to simplify his sound. This led to new pieces for his elastic ensemble, the Club Bird All-Stars, which required trust and understanding in their delicate dance of harmony and rhythm, as can be heard on Ware’s new recording, Martian Sunset.
Best known for his work with The Jazz Passengers and Groove Collective, Bill Ware has been an asset in collaborations across multiple genres, featuring in the work of well-known musicians and bands, like Steely Dan and Elvis Costello. Ware has maintained his own ensembles for just as long. One of the longest lived has been his Club Bird All-Stars, which takes its name from a long-gone Japanese jazz club that provided Ware a three-month residency in the mid-1990s.
The Club Bird All-Stars have become Ware’s main vehicle for his own compositions. The flexible group has a rotating cast of horn and rhythm players, suiting the needs of Ware’s pieces. As for the music, Ware’s writing has been expansive since 2016. He wrote over 250 songs since 2016 and including 60 pieces while the world experienced the pandemic.
Ware made a change in his ensemble when he began thinking of recording his new music. He decided to include his longtime friend and collaborator, guitarist Rez Abbasi, whose loose approach, rich sound, and rhythmic virtuosity adds a wonderful dimension to the intricate ensemble sound provided by the polished grooves of pianist Matt King, bassist Jay Anderson, and drummer Taru Alexander.
As the group readied itself for a recording session at the famed Van Gelder Studios, Ware attended a concert featuring saxophonist Joe Lovano and guitarist Julian Lage. He was struck by the openness of the music. Being a fan of sophisticated harmonies, Ware’s pieces tend to have dense passages for the musicians to navigate. Ware decided then to scrap half of the program and, over the next three days, wrote all new music, most of which sprung from and were built from a simple blues.
The Club Bird All-Stars arrived at the Van Gelder Studios with a new book of compositions, pieces that balanced Ware’s compositional goals with a strong performance provided by a group of musicians Ware trusted. The performances captured the energy and influence of the classic late-1960s groups of Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, and Cannonball Adderley.
The program begins with “Around The Horn,” a piece with a bouncy melody over a pedal tone and hip changes making ideal conditions to pass solo duties from one musician to another. Beginning as a blues, “That Dirty Road” remains an airy piece allowing for tremendous solo statements, while “Happy Bird” is an uptempo post-bop burner with a unique form and a John Coltrane inspired whole-tone harmonic pattern. The thoughtful ballad “Safer Journey” pays respect to individuals with mental health challenges, an odd colored harmony representing the off vibration in the mental equilibrium.
The title track was born of Ware’s interest in the more “out” music of Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra that he was introduced to by his Jazz Passengers cohorts. Here, the rocky terrain of Mars is represented by the ever shifting playing of Alexander on this drum feature. “In a Spiral” was built from favored bits of earlier compositions in order to make a better whole. The piece’s effortless swing is propelled by Anderson’s resonant bass and King’s emphatic keys. Ware began “Don’t Take Me Wrong” with a groove and then wrote the melody from his own vocalizations, creating what he feels is the purest of his compositions.
“Hangin’ at The Rez” imagines the hippie hangout near Maplewood, New Jersey that Ware grew up frequenting. It is also a great feature for Abbasi’s guitar along with Ware’s expressive melodica. The punchy “All the Way Down” is a drum forward piece that most retained the blues inflection that was instrumental to the inception of all of Ware’s newer pieces. The recording concludes with “Blue Alteration,” an older piece that fit the vibe and provided a tight structure and wild changes that the soloists could soar over.
Changing lanes in the midst of a project is always a difficult choice to make. Bill Ware chose a change of tack in order to serve the music of Martian Sunset, providing a more expansive view of his music as performed by his long running band and musical foundry, the Club Bird All-Stars.