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The Graham Album Review #2224

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Clay Wulbrecht: The Clockmaster

(Instru-Dash-Mental Records, as broadcast on WVIA-FM 1/15/2025)

Jazz-rock fusion comes in a number of flavors, from very rock-oriented with guitar shredding to so-called smooth jazz. Usually, fusion is performed and recorded like jazz, with a fairly constant ensemble, with minimally changing instrumentation. In other words, music that can, and is often performed live. On the other hand, there is the art rock world where recordings were often elaborately constructed in the studio in a way that would not be so easy to perform in a live setting, short of the massive stage productions that the art rock groups of the 1970s and 80s did.

This week, we have an interesting record that probably has more in common stylistically with jazz-rock fusion, but is a kind of wild ride with all manner of instrumentation and styles brought in, running from funk to orchestral, with musicians from four countries. Surprisingly, it all works quite well. It’s by composer and keyboard man Clay Wulbrecht, and his new album is called The Clockmaster.

Clay Wulbrecht is a still relatively young resident of State College, PA, with a degree in jazz studies from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. He was something of a prodigy, having released three albums before his teens. He has worked with artists like Becca Stevens, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Randy Brecker among others. He was also involved with a group called “#Bloomerangs” with Uruguayan guitarist Rodrigo Cotelo, which featured members from the US, Uruguay, Argentina and Spain. Wulbrecht enlists some of those players for his album, The Clockmaster, with Cotelo serving as producer. The recording was made in Indiana, Montevideo, Uruguay; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Montreal, Canada; along with State College and Saylorsburg here in Pennsylvania.

With a cast and set of locations like that, it’s not surprising that the album is rather ambitious. But Wulbrecht and his record label describe it as invoking a “playful universe with music being the vehicle that transports the listener through multiple dimensions and realities.” There is a degree of whimsy to the record, with occasional quirky injections of spoken words, and the musical mood generally stays upbeat and positive, and no long lugubrious segments, though some of the tracks on the nearly hour-long album are pretty lengthy.

Appearing with keyboardist Wulbrecht and guitarist Cotelo, are drummer Mateo Ottonello; bassist Marco Messina, and horn players Ramiro Flores and Jeffry Parker. Flores also conducts the orchestra, when it appears.

Opening is an example of the album’s whimsical side, a track called Time to Get Up , with an insistent mother urging a reluctant Clay to get out of bed, while stylistically, it’ s all over the place. <<>>

The album gets into a prog rock mode on one of the shorter tracks, Hit the Ground Running with Cotelo doing some major guitar shredding. <<>>

A piece called Medieval Love is another example of the album’s good-natured eclecticism. The bulk of the tune features an interesting combination of a kind of techno beat played on real drums, with jazzy horns and an acoustic guitar solo. <<>>

With a more electronic sound in terms of its beat is a piece called Cuando Nacio el Mundo or “when the world was born.” It can get to sounding a little frenetic at times. <<>>

Some hip-hop and funk influence turns up on the track Just a Little Bit. It has some of those spoken comments, and it’s a vehicle for an extended solo by Ramiro Flores on tenor sax. <<>>

The album’s lengthiest piece is called Though It’s Sad and Painful. The track goes through a lot of changes in its nearly 11 minutes. Wulbrecht is heard on a melodica at first <<>> before it gets into an orchestral section. <<>>

Another track that shows its eclecticism is one called Montreal to Pennsylvania which can go from a hip-hop rhythm to an ethereal trumpet solo <<>>

Perhaps the most sonically eclectic track on the album, is called You Think You Still Have Time. There are nature sounds, and an Oriental sounding string instrument in a rather ethereal-sounding setting with strings and even a children’s chorus. <<>>

The Clockmaster by Clay Wulbrecht a kind epitome of musical eclecticism, with an everything but the kitchen-sink approach to instrumentation and styles, from ethereal to funk, from orchestral to metal-style guitar, with musicians from Pennsylvania to Uruguay. Something as widely divergent as this would have the potential of being a kind of incoherent mess, but it all comes together remarkably well on this album, conveying a positive musical mood with tempos that keep moving, arrangements that skillfully bring together the diverse instrumental voices, and a sense of whimsy. The playing is first rate, and the way the production brings together the parts recorded in four different countries is impressive.

Our grade for audio quality is an A-minus. The diverse musical elements are blended well and there is decent clarity, but the dynamic range of the recording could have been better.

Clay Wulbrecht has succeeded on his new album in combining some of the improvisational aspects of the jazz-rock fusion scene with the elaborate arrangements of the progressive rock world, and the result is a worthwhile and entertaining album of mostly instrumental music.

(c) Copyright 2025 George D. Graham. All rights reserved.
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