Cookin' With Kurt - Cookin' With Kurt (CD)

All Music Guide

There are just two tracks on this 33-minute release of improvised instrumentals: "Soup Du' Jour," which lasts nearly 22 minutes, and "Soup of the Day," which goes on for 11 and a half minutes. The rhythm section sets a pretty solid funk-jazz groove while Peter Fuhry lays elastic, languid flute and clarinet lines to provide the jazziest flavors. Stenzo, meanwhile, underpins matters with the most experimental ambient ingredients, with a host of funk/experimental/jazz/psychedelic/Asian-like synthesizer riffs and textures. While this isn't gripping -- and, if the liner notes are to be taken at face value, is in fact intended as incidental domestic background music -- it also isn't as meandering as you might think. It's solid, diverse ambient stuff that avoids getting locked into monotonous pulses. Kudos also for a recording that has the brains to use synthesizers to explore a range of tones and moods, instead of the limited frigid and impersonal hums that many synthesists would restrict th...emselves to in similar recording situations. - Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide Read more Less