Listener reviews from iTunes, Jan 2017

• A True Jazz Experience by Noslowdrivers

If you're looking for a fresh sound with detail in the story, this album delivers. It has been on repeat for a week! Give it a sample you won't be disappointed.

• Very Rewarding Jazz Record by Still Buggy Like Mad

Being a big fan of Victor Wooten, Marcus Miller, and John Patitucci, this record is really great! All kinds of bass, cool grooves and thoughtful solo sections make it a lot of fun to listen to.

• A gifted and generous artist by Shungfu72

You don't just listen to this album -- it speaks directly to you. I loved every minute of it!

• Worth the wait! by 7Zero7

What a great experience, and this was worth the wait. There are a lot of layers and subtle notes telling a great story. I'm really enjoying this one!

Review of "Time On My Hands" by Hans-Bernd Hulsmann, www.smooth-jazz.de

True greatness comes from the precision in the details. Bassist Brendan Rothwell seems to have come out of the blue to follow this motto. With his debut album Time On My Hands (2016) he is now in the spotlight.

Brendan performs on this album bass, keyboards, guitar and programming. Among the supporting musical friends he rounds up are Poogie Bell and Chris Bailey (drums), Sheldon Zandboer (synth, piano, programming), Luc Desharnais (pedal steel) and Chris Andrew (synth, additional piano). 

The album starts with the Intro (Wake the Bass). Quiet like a panther purrs his bass to keyboards chords. The Song of Songs from the Old Testament inspired both religious and secular love poetry over many centuries. This Is the Love is Brendan's personal praise of love.

The gentle title song Time on My Hands features a duet between Brendan and Luc Desharnais. While Brendan performs the bass as melody carrier, plays Luc a pedal steel delivering additional harmonies with country music flair. The lyrical walking bass lines are contagious. Decade is a melodious flashback on Brendan's creation period in Calgary. Grace and style of his bass harmonize in a gorgeous display of musical cohesion with the crystal world of Sheldon Zandboer's synth sounds.

The King is inspired by the Takamine acoustic bass and written in tribute to Akir. In the search of higher notes one can recognize elements of Jaco Pastorius' style. Brendan describes Smooth as machine music. This is likely to be the case for the rhythm, the bass and the guitar however are pure natural beasts. 

Brendan has to tell a story, the Outro (Stories). Beside the spoken words is his bass the real storyteller.

Is Time On My Hands just another bass album? Not at all, Brendan's bass is far deeper than the soul. You have to discover the musical abysses, which magnetically draw in the spell.

  Hans-Bernd Hulsmann http://www.smooth-jazz.de/starportrait/Rothwell/TimeOnMyHands.htm 

January 27 2017

Reviews of "Time On My Hands" from soundzsocial.com

• Bass Absolute. By GillieHix

  There's a small part of me, that wants no one to have these tracks bar me. Then I can use it, to silence another pretentious musicians conversation. The rest of me wants everybody to hear, how humble the talented really are.

• An excellent album by an excellent musician. By bigdatachap

  For some of us we've waited a long time for this. This is one of the nicest albums I've heard this year. Don't let the cover fool you, it's not a bass player's album, it's an album for everyone. There are hints of Miles Davis Tutu years influence weaved in with some fantastic melodies and grooves. Also, it's a very well produced album, something else that Brendan excels at. There's depth, there's emotion and there's feeling in the notes played. It's a wonderful collection of modern jazz tunes.

• Just Fabulous !!! By Benaud's a Hero

  One of the nicest things about this album is how it speaks through different playback media. Even down to changing headphones, the attention to detail is extraordinary. A testimony to a man caught up in the "business" of music. Harmony meets melody sublimely, supported by an elegant, almost subsonic, warmth. A pleasure to listen to again, and again.

Online support for the release of "Time On My Hands" from Bass Musician magazine.

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