Twilight - Louis Bonilla Quintet

Twilight is a straight-ahead quintet album with a twinge of old-style fusion, ala The Crusaders, anchored by the wonderful trombone work of Louis Bonilla. As much as I hate to admit it after years of band rivalries, I’ve grown to love trombone. Deep, warm sound - like the tenor sax of the brass section. I also tend to like the quintet format a bit better than trio, but that’s nothing but personal taste.

Twilight opens the album with a definite RTF/Weather Report eerie electric piano. Tenor and trombone join quickly, but the electric piano definitely sets the mood quickly transitioning into a nice ballad sound. Then about halfway through the intensity and tempo shoots up with great trombone and tenor work with the piano working behind them. This track works really well.

The Moon and the Sun follows with a more straight-ahead treatment and switch to a traditional piano instead of the electric. Vertigo takes the tempo up just a bit and again trends toward a straight-ahead sound.

Blind Faith really takes the tempo and energy up, staying with more traditional jazz feel. Great dueling sax/trombone work about halfway through. Very nice work.

Visions has the feel of an old Chick Corea tune - probably because of the Fender electric piano, but also because of the rock tinged vibe. Really nice work consistent with the rest of the album. Cork Grease is a slow-burning blues number switching from electric piano to Hammond B-3. Wraps up the album nicely.