Moment in Time is the 2nd jazz release from 2003 Juno Award winner Richard Underhill. 10 melodic original songs played with passion by a wonderful band featuring piano sensation Luis Guerra, tenor legend Bob Brough, bassist Mike Milligan and drummer Joe Poole. The CD also features wonderful drummer Daniel Barnes, Graig Earle on bass, William Carn on trombone and Chris Gale on sax.

The arrangements are excellent, the songs are catchy, the band amazing and the sound impeccable (thanks to Jono Grant!). Hard swinging modern jazz at it's best.

'one of the best-sounding CDs of the year'
A thoroughly modern take on modern jazz, à la Coleman and Hawkins.
Brent Raynor 'NNNN' NOW | DECEMBER 15 - 21, 2005

'a resolutely swinging affair, focused and mature'
Eye Weekly - Toronto - November 24/2005

'shape-shifting pieces that show off rich harmonies'
The Toronto Star - November 10/2005

Geoff Chapman

'one of the best-sounding (CD's) of the year'
NOW Magazine - Toronto - December 15/2005

RICHARD UNDERHILL Moment In Time (Stubby) Rating: NNNN

It's hard to believe this follow-up to his 2003 Juno winner, Tales From The Blue Lounge, is only Underhill's second solo album. As a founding member of the Shuffle Demons and a noted session sax player who puts in time with Blue Rodeo, Underhill seems to have been around forever. This album, co-produced by Jono Grant and Underhill, continues to deliver the goods, and may be one of the best-sounding of the year. All the better to hear the intense rhythm section, especially on Perry's Place and Day Off, where the drums and bass create an organic, driving force for Underhill and keys master Luis Guerra to go off on wild warring solos. Competition here is healthy, bringing out the best in everyone, with Bob Brough's tenor sax sweetly countering Underhill's alto. A thoroughly modern take on modern jazz, à la Coleman and Hawkins.

Brent Raynor

'a resolutely swinging affair, focused and mature'
Eye Weekly - Toronto - November 24/2005 - CD guide - Moment in Time ***

'For a long time, the word restraint didn't seem to be in Richard Underhill's musical vocabulary, but the man who led 900 saxists in playing the Hockey Night in Canada theme last year has delivered a small-group jazz album that sounds both focused and mature. Moment in Time is a resolutely swinging affair, mostly in a 1960s post-bop vein, featuring thoughtful and committed playing from Underhill and sidemen, as well as some memorable original charts. Occasionally, though, it feels more accomplished than exciting;its best moments, such as in the feverish drum 'n' bass-referencing "Morse Code," find the musicians exploring intriguing new territory. Should Underhill manage to imbue his current group more consistently with his Shuffle Demons' exuberant, experimental spirit, he'll surely turn the Canadian jazz world on its ear.'

'shape-shifting pieces that show off rich harmonies'
Toronto Star - November 10/2005 - Moment in Time (*** 1/2 out of 4)

Richard Underhill of the Shuffle Demons won a 2003 Juno award for 'Tales from the Blue Lounge' and his strong follow 'Moment in Time' (***1/2) is surely in with a prize chance. It's official release is Tuesday at the Montreal Bistro. The alto saxophonist's quintet playing his 10 compositions has expert foils in tenorman Bob Brough and yet another Cuban piano prodigy, 21 year-old Luis Guerra.

Underhill is comfortable and frequently thrilling in all areas and gets bustling aid from his pulse duos bassists Mike Milligan or Graig Earle and drummers Joe Poole or Daniel Barnes, plus occasional guests.

The groups scramble effectively with contemporary, dense-themed and shape-shifting pieces that show off rich harmonies and opportunities for heady outside playing

Geoff Chapman

'second album builds on considerable promise'
CODA - Richard Underhill Moment in Time Stubby Records SRCD-7732

Altoist/composer Richard Underhill's second disc away from the often-comic contours of The Shuffle Demons builds on considerable promise. While he works in familiar territory, Underhill has a keen ear for detail as a bandleader, a neat talent for finding the right elasticity in his tunes-not bad at all on a set that features the choice of two different bassists and three different drummers-and good lungs and ideas as a soloist. It all comes together especially well in sly tracks like "A Few Things" and "Chasing the Sun," which never stay quite the same as you might expect, while "Traffic" is fairly mischievous with Joe Poole's canny drumming. As for detail, check the opening of "Morse Code," with its sprinkles of piano (Luis Guerra) and pulse bass (Mike Milligan). Can we get a live album next?

A veteran of Toronto's jazz scene and one of its most endearingly hip personalities, saxophonist Richard Underhill is celebrating the release of his second album as leader, Moment in Time. Produced with Jono Grant, the album features Luis Guerra on piano, trombonist William Cairn, fellow sax players Chris Gale and Bob Brough, as well as alternating rhythm sections - bassists Mike Milligan and Graig Earle, and drummers Daniel Barnes and Joe Poole. Underhill has just done a reunion tour of his successful hip-hop/hard-bop group The Shuffle Demons. Where his previous outing as titular leader, Tales from the Blue Lounge, had been made with an ear to mainstream jazz of the 50s and 60s, this recording comes prepared with a more modern jazz sound. Underhill, who cites influences such as the World Saxophone Quartet, Eric Dolphy, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, attributes that Blue Note sound of Tales from the Blue Lounge in part to its instrumentation - compositions featured organ and guitar. In contrast, the new record "has sort of a more modern jazz sound. It's still got interesting harmonies and rich chords, but it's a little bit more the typical jazz line-up of piano, and a couple of horns, and bass and drums. Definitely, it's got a more modern sound to it than the Blue Lounge had which was a bit more vintage."

"Moment in Time was a multi-faceted recording. I was busy during the Shuffle Demons reunion tour, and I wanted to record with some of my favourite players, one of them being Graig Earle, a bass player. He was leaving to go to Copenhagen, so I recorded some songs with him and a great drummer named Daniel Barnes, with Luis Guerra on piano. I waited a few months and in March of this year I did another session with another great drummer, Joe Poole, and another great bass player, Mike Milligan. There are a couple of different rhythm sections and it represents the evolution of the music.

"The first session is a bit more in the Blue Lounge vein, where it sounds more like a vintage album. The newer stuff has more of a modern sound."

Underhill has also garnered attention because of his music videos. His group The Shuffle Demons had made videos for their hits, "Roach Motel" and "Spadina Bus," and with these recent recordings, he has continued to promote through visual mediums.

"I think it's because I wear a lot of different hats that I feel that the music video is valuable. People don't think about it or know how to go about it, because it can be a little daunting. I just know that you want to raise your profile and have different places for people to see or hear the music and a video really allows people who might be surfing TV to come across the video, and by association, get into the music. With this album, we went to BravoFact and they were very generous - on the first one we did 'The Old Guys', and we've got another one coming up for 'Day Off' on this album. It's been a good thing and it just gets you out there." Asked to comment on his songwriting process, Underhill said, "I used this quote from Allen Ginsberg in Tales from the Blue Lounge's liner notes: "When the muse calls / Answer". I use that whenever a song pops into my head. I quickly run over to the phone and call my answering machine and record it, and now I have this little dictaphone/mp3 player that I wear around my neck to record stuff. It's really an organic process where I'll just start singing something and get it down. Later, when I'm writing the album I'll look at all these little bits and pieces that I've assembled and I'll transcribe them.

"Sometimes you get a whole song. I'll just sing for a minute and listen back and say 'wow, that's a whole song' - that happened on 'Will of the People'."

Beyond the call-and-transcribe method that Richard Underhill has utilized in communicating his vision as leader, his approach has also involved inorganic rhythmic experimentation. "There's another unique thing that I did on this record," he continues. "I was recording something with another player, Tom Walsh, trombone player, and he said 'why don't you write a song?' The recording session was the next day, so I thought 'what can I do to write a song quickly?' I typed some text into a Morse code generator on the Internet, and used that as the starting point for a tune. I recorded it with him and I changed it and made it on this album, and that's the tune 'Morse Code'."

"The funniest part was, I wrote something like 'The dog went down the hill', put it in, and it wasn't very interesting. Then I just took some text like 'Public Meeting 7 O'Clock Community Center X'. I put that in and that was really cool."