(Fusion, Canterbury Sound) In Cahoots (Phil Miller) - Parallel - 1996, MP3 (tracks), VBR 229-248 kbps

PARALLEL Crescent Discs CD4CD
Phil Miller. Elton Dean. Fred Baker. Jim Dvorak. Pete Lemer. Pip Pyle.
review from Jazz Journal USA May 1997: Phil Miller has been around the progressive jazz-rock scene since the beginning....but this album is the strongest amongst those of his records I’ve heard. Its forte is its compositions. These are all by Miller, who, although modestly equipped as a guitarist by today’s standards, here proves a skilled manipulator of modern harmonic resources and contemporary compositional styles. There’s perhaps little explicit reference to Miller’s earlier, whimsical ‘Canterbury style (though the attitude no doubt remains) and rather more reminders of the sort of music produced by Steve Coleman, Greg Osby and other stalwarts of the early nineties M-Base scene in New York. The tunes are a treat in themselves, but amid Miller’s intriguing and convoluted compositions are plenty of spaces for solos from himself, Elton Dean, Jim Dvorak, Fred Baker and Pete Lemer. Lemer is especially fluent, but once again, the arrangement is supreme on this record, with solos a diverting aspect of the whole. Not perhaps one for the devotee of the 32-bar blowing format, but equally if not more creative than many sessions in that style. (Mark Gilbert)
- Phil Miller/ guit.,guit.-synth.
- Elton Dean / (as,saxello)
- Jim Dvorak/ tpt.
- Peter Lemer/ keyb.
- Fred Baker / bass
- Pip Pyle / drums