Anytime you come across a piece of music in 7/4 time these days, you know you are dealing with someone who is proudly and defiantly staying out of the easy-to-digest mainstream of jazz. It takes some very talented people to pull this kind of tune off properly, and I am happy to report that guitarist/composer Carl Eichman and his internet-based trio (with Bill Lawrence on bass and Filippo Bertacche on drums) have the goods to deliver.
Crooked Mile is the kind of music we used to call art rock; back in the days when Gentle Giant, Yes, and Peter Gabriel-era Genesis were the newest and coolest things out there. With the more liberal definitions of jazz we use these days, the jazz fusion; label works just as well to describe this fine piece of music.

Eichman layers dense, processed chunks of Metheny-esque guitar with cleaner acoustic riffs, soaring electric cascades and varied synth textures. Combined with Lawrence's robust bass lines and Bertacche's active but tasteful percussion thrusts, the mixture is rich and satisfying to the ear.
The band rides through the odd meter time fluidly and comfortably, and Eichman establishes some solid melodic themes which stay with you long after the track ends. The composition is well considered, with rhythmic diversity, changing dynamics and thematic development keeping things coherent and evolving.
The improvisation is clearly very skilled (in particular the gymnastic bass solo which occurs around the 4-minute mark), but always the chops highlight and accent the music (instead of the other way around, as is sometimes the case in the fusion genre). It should also be pointed out that this recording is an example of the increasingly popular internet collaboration trend, made possible by sophisticated music recording/processing software and high-speed internet access.

Eichman is able to work in Connecticut, and send his partially completed recordings (in digital format) across the internet first to Bertacche in Italy to add his drums, and then to Lawrence in upstate NY for the bass part. The finished recordings end up back with Eichman for final mixing and production. The process is so seamless and the musicians so skilled that there is no hint in the finished product of the distributed nature of its recording. Ultimately, the success of a complex piece like Crooked Mile is judged by how well it works at both the intellectual and soulful levels, and for me, this piece delivers on both counts. This is a first-rate composition, performance and production - bravo!
Gods Of Music