Blueness is Doug’s third album for CMG and his first with ii V I, his touring band. The ii V I moniker, or minor to dominant to tonic is the cornerstone of Jazz improvisation. It conjures up the changes patterned on the traditional standards from Gershwin, Porter, Kern, Rodgers & Hart, but the offerings here are mostly bop meets funk. A lot of

Blueness is Doug’s third album for CMG and his first with ii V I, his touring band. The ii V I moniker, or minor to dominant to tonic is the cornerstone of Jazz improvisation. It conjures up the changes patterned on the traditional standards from Gershwin, Porter, Kern, Rodgers & Hart, but the offerings here are mostly bop meets funk. A lot of the tunes are modally based and provide Doug and ii V I with a road map to lay down some outside (the tonal center) lines. Doug’s playing is laden with clichés, but they are of his own creation, imprinting the listener with an indelible impression of his maverick style. He employs motifs and repetitive shapes and forms, moving them up and down the neck in minor thirds and fourths, a la John Coltrane. There’s lots of intervallic leaps, unpredictable twists and turns, dripping with a high-speed chorus effect. Many of his phrases are pregnant with distorted and exaggerated tension.