CD review: The Mike Rud trio invites Peter Bernstein – Salome’s Dance 2020: Video, CD cover

Album cover design winner for Mike Rud’s upcoming album, Salome’s Dance: The Mike Rud Trio Invites Peter Bernstein. I probably will never get over this feeling lol. But to start, it was a design done within my Typography II class, taught by Constanza Pacher, at MacEwan University.

We were given a musician as our client to design a cover for their upcoming album and that musician would select one lucky winner from our class as their final design . We had the chance to interview Mike Rud and as well as listening to some of the songs that will be on the album. As it was a jazz album, I wanted to explore hand lettering as the main concept of the piece (besides the fact that I kept begging Constanza for a project that involved hand lettering haha). With my concept, I explored multiple jazz album covers from the 1950s and 60s to get an understanding of the type treatment that was used and the colours that were applied. For the final piece, I hand lettered each words onto every series that was needed for the vinyl and used a bright colour palette that was fun and playful, but yet still sophisticated and eye catching to the viewer without it feeling too childish. Never did I think that I would win this competition as I came into the project just really wanting to do hand lettering and having fun with it. I didn’t want to feel pressured that I needed to win this, the idea of it was already perfect enough for my portfolio so I said “why not?” to myself. I want to thank everyone who was involved in this project, my professor Constanza Pacher, Mike Rud, Rose Ginther, Paul Johnston, everyone involved at the Bent River Records label, and my classmates as well for giving me feedback from another perspective. I can’t thank you guys enough for this opportunity as it means so much to me. I will be uploading some more pieces later on, including the final print out of the album.

Also, I’d like to congratulate my classmates too as everyone had designed a piece that is well worthy of being recognized for the album cover contest.

A Juno recipient, Montreal guitarist Mike Rud has a long track record, in addition to being a student of no less famous guitarist Jim Hall. For this Salome’s Dance: The Mike Rud Trio Invites Peter Bernstein, which is aimed more particularly at guitar enthusiasts, he called on a long-time friend, American guitarist Peter Bernstein. Salome’s Dance, a gem of finesse, with guitarist Peter Bernstein Whenever my colleague Claude Thibault suggests an album dedicated to the guitar, I always have a few question marks since my culture in this field boils down to Django Reinhardt, Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery and of course Jim Hall. Knowing that Mike Rud gets some of his play from the late Jim Hall, I was therefore a bit on the familiar ground. Surrounded by drummer Dave Lang and double bass player Alec Walkington, Salome’s Dance is a gem of finesse. To the perfect coherence of the two guitarists who dialogue we will add the poetry and the soft infrastructure of the compositions, the most beautiful of which finds its culmination in a tribute to our poet / singer Leonard Cohen.

Mike Rud is a Juno Award-winning guitarist and composer, who has performed alongside such musicians as Herb Ellis and Joey DeFrancesco. In New York City in 1996, Mike studied with the great Jim Hall and recorded his debut album featuring Jorge Rossy, Joe Martin, Bill McHenry, and John Stetch. More recently, Mike renewed his connection with great American jazz guitarists, performing with John Stowell, Chris Flory, and of course Peter Bernstein, who Mike has known since 1992.

1.Salome’s Dance (6:47)
2.Petroglyph (4:43)
3.Leonard Cohen (3:23)
4.Shuffle Pants (3;45)
5.Parc La Fontaine (3:55)
6.I’m Getting Sentimental Over You (6:29)
7.A Man of the World (6:08)
8.Amsterdam Avenue (4:14)
9.Blood Wolf Moon Blues (5:58)

Mike Rud: guitar;

Peter Bernstein: guitar;

Alec Walkington: bass;

Dave Laing: drums