Mill City Trio: Press

One of the best guitar-based instrumental jazz albums of 2010, Looking Up is a worthy musical mood changer that will have you looking up in no time.

For the full text of this review, plus an interview with Greg Passler and Jamie Dunphy, click here:

The Mill City Trio have returned with a spirited new CD entitled Looking Up. Greg Passler and Jamie Dunphy share songwriting credits on songs that soar with inventive creativity. Their sound is clean and crisp, while all three members get to strut their musical chops from track to track. That's the beauty of The Mill City Trio. While remaining firmly entrenched in the jazz tradition, when it comes time to improvise, they execute with blinding precision and ride the fringe with fearless abandon. Excellent!

Mill City Trio play jazz with rich guitar tones and modern modalities. Looking Up is populated with original tunes that at times remind one of certain early Larry Coryell compositions. Well-recorded and beautifully played, Looking Up is a winner.

The Massachusetts-based Mill City Trio stirs up a quiet brand of intensity on Looking Up, with the somewhat unusual instrumentation of drums and two guitars. Drummer Anthony D'Anna provides a delicate, yet driving foundation for guitarists Jamie Dunphy and Greg Passler who display a like-minded approach to jazz guitar.

Exchanging solo lines full of quick wit and swinging exuberance, the two revive the spirit of celebrated guitar duo outings with the likes Herb Ellis and Joe Pass on original pieces such as "What to Do If You Miss the Rapture" and "125th and Amsterdam." Guitaristic-voicings and arpeggios make for unique flavors on the bluesy "Hevilo," and the straight pulse of "Come Up For Air." When Passler takes up the electric bass on "Looks Like Rain," Dunphy digs in to a punchy Kenny Burrell vibe. The switch to acoustic guitars helps create a Spanish flavor on "Whirlpool." The soloing is technically proficient throughout without being over indulgent.

With an all original set of tunes, including Dunphy's arrangement of a traditional Korean melody, Mill City Trio succeeds at being both inventive and accessible with a mellow sound, heavy on lyricism. The listener-friendly grooves, spurred by D'Anna's skillful brush work encourage rapt attention and repeated listening.

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UMASS Lowell has turned out some excellent musicians over the years and the Mill City Trio is no exception. Formed in 2005, this jazz trio has released two critically acclaimed CDs: 2006's Solstice and last year's Down Deep. The strength of the music lies in the interplay between the two guitars handled expertly by Jamie Dunphy and Greg Passler. The effect is a hypnotic, dreamy sound canvas that threatens to explode at any given moment but which remains inward and controlled. Completing the trio is percussionist Anthony D'Anna whose inventive playing compliments the two guitars perfectly.