Ships With Tattooed Sails by Jewels and Binoculars/ Horner, Moore, Vatcher play music of Bob Dylan

Starting in the late 90's, New York bassist Lindsey Horner would get together with reedist Michael Moore and percussionist Michael Vatcher, longtime American residents of Amsterdam, Holland, to explore that repertoire.

Interpreting the songs instrumentally, the trio uses the power of the tried and true folk song forms as the starting point for their improvisational flights, all the while keeping the power of the words and images fresh in mind.

Rather than guitar,voice and harmonica, the instrumentation relies primarily on the clarinet, bass clarinet or alto saxophone for the melody, the acoustic bass for the harmony, and Michael Vatcher’s wide variety of percussion instruments for textural variation.

The latest recording, the third from this collective trio, is entitled Ships With Tattooed Sails on Horner's Upshot Records label. As of May 2007 it is available through www.lindseyhorner.com, downtownmusicgallery.com or cdbaby.com.

The previous two releases, Floater and Jewels and Binoculars were released on Moore's Ramboy Recordings label.

PLEASE NOTE: There have been misperceptions that Jewels and Binoculars is led by Michael Moore or that it is Lindsey Horner’s project. Neither is accurate.

Jewels and Binoculars/Michael Moore, Lindsey Horner, Michael Vatcher play music of Bob Dylan is a collective trio and always has been since its inception in the year 2000. All three members share equally in the responsibilities and artistic direction of the group.

Please keep this fact in mind when writing about the band, this recording or any previous release.

"Dylan's tunes are quietly and beautifully, almost mystically , transformed. This was beautiful and imaginative playing by clarinetist/saxophonist Michael Moore, drummer Michael Vatcher and bassist Lindsey Horner."- San Jose Mercury News

JEWELS AND BINOCULARS/MICHAEL MOORE, LINDSEY HORNER, MICHAEL VATCHER PLAY MUSIC OF BOB DYLAN

"Jewels and Binoculars is a surprising, effective tribute to the music of Bob Dylan, imbued with a lyrical sensibility but spiked with an array of hard-edged corners...A trio finding power in the interpretation of simple forms with thoroughly unsaccharine sweetness. The openness here never comes the easy way-three consummate stylists serving up sincerity with rough-hewn,hard fought rigor.

Without qualification, this is a classic of a new century."

— Charles Walker, Sudden Thoughts

"Jewels and Binoculars confronts us with a scarcely recognized paradigm-that jazz music has folk roots...As a whole, there is a blend of courage and melancholy in the tunes, which owes largely to the careful sequencing of the record. Bob Dylan should be flattered, as his music here is imaginitively interpreted with gorgeous instrumentation, while treated with obliging respect."

— Alan Jones, One Final Note. UK

"Bob Dylan's focus is on words, messages, and simple melodies that speak to the soul...Stripped of their pop rhythyms and vocals, the songs stand on their own as attractive melodies with hooks and nooks. It doesn't hurt to have the kind of extraordinary talent comprising this trio..The results are never less than fascinating."

— Steven Leowy, Cadence magazine (USA)

"...All melodies well suited for Moore's touching Jimmy Guiffre inspired clarinet. Switching to alto saxophone for "Dear Landlord" and "With God on Our Side", among others, he gives a glimpse of the rude sputtery energy he's brought to Mengelberg's ICP Orchestra and the late Clusone 3, thereby honoring Dylan the surrealist and Dylan the reckless crooner.

Horner takes the simple harmonies as they are, but can row back and forth over a scale and make it sound like a solo, thanks to creative phrasing and precise timing, articulation and intonation.

Vatcher loves the zillion timbres an extended trap set can produce and can be a weirdly hiccupy timekeeper, testing the parameters of a beat, taking perfectly good phrases and stretching them dangerously out of shape. Like Bob Dylan."

— Kevin Whitehead, Chicago Reader

"Jewels and Binoculars stands as a testimonial to the timelessness of Dylan's music, to the versatility of jazz, and to the foresight and the talent of these three musicians who brought them together."

— Brendan Garland, Metro Santa Cruz (California)

"Jewels and Binoculars' style is never anything but gloriously sweet and soothing, the listening experience was all good"

— Stuart Derdeyn,Canada West (Vancouver, B.C.)

Average Customer Review: