Dick Wood

Dick Wood: Not Far From Here

by Glenn Astarita
January 5, 2012

California reed man Dck Wood's heterogeneous union of influences from New Orleans, Louis Armstrong, John Cage and a consortium of other luminaries are rather subliminally packaged throughout this audacious studio date. Here, the artist gives the always-thriving West Coast progressive-jazz scene yet another jolt, as his semi-structured arrangements are fashioned with shadowy song-forms, peppered with dissonant tonal swashes, electronics and bizarre interludes. Wood also infuses humor and pathos into the fluid story lines, often proposing interpretations of social pandemonium.