Here Is a 4 out of 5 star review for my debut album “Road Ahead” from John Fordham at the Guardian:
Mark Perry/Duncan Eagles Quintet:
Road Ahead – review
(F-ire) ****
“An intelligent and very musical set”
“The core lineup here (trumpet, sax and rhythm section) could fool you into thinking Road Ahead was just another expertly schooled exercise in generic retro-bop – but it’s a lot more than that. Trumpeter Perry and saxophonist Eagles are long-term collaborators whose ease together is evident, and here they have made an intelligent and very musical set. Perry’s Flip of a Coin opens as a fanfare for the two horns, and his clean-toned, slow-sliding sounds suggest Terence Blanchard and Ambrose Akinmusire may be influences; Eagles complements this with a beguilingly dry tenor-sax tone and canny timing. Chord Game starts as a postbop groover, but its countermelody invites a dreamier mood, then a briskly fluent piano solo from the excellent Sam Leak. Perry and Eagles are warmly inventive close-harmony composers on slow pieces such as the ballad Forever, while the skipping Barters Band suggests reinvented 1950s Cool School music, and the distantly Celtic One Last Kiss unfolds over a catchy piano hook.”
Buy it from www.markperrymusic.com