Peter Scherr's 'Son of August' review [VIDEO]

Peter Scherr, an American bassist residing in China released his album Son of August in June of 2010. The album features the musical styling of several different artists including Michael Blake on saxophone, Brad Shepik on guitar, Tony Scherr on guitar, Mike Sarin on drums, and Peter Scherr on bass.

This album is basically a culmination of good friends getting together and “jamming” in the garage. It is bluesy, but only at times. More often than not, the music does not make any sense. It feels like a sloppy mess of strings heaped onto one album. Honestly, I expected to hear a bit more oriental influence on the album considering the man whose name is on the album lives in China. Scherr’s aim was for a jazz album, but I don’t think he quite reached that sound on the album- at least not in the classic, smooth jazz sense. This album is its own genre: rock, blues, and jazz garage band all in one.

The saxophone sounds beautiful on this album and so do the guitars and Scherr’s bass work, but each instrument’s role in the music does not congeal and make something worth going out of the way to listen to. Do not get me wrong, this album is okay. However, since Scherr started writing the songs on this album in August of 2008, I expected to hear a little more, especially with the help of the other talented artists prevalent on the album.

Hopefully Scherr will throw some more oriental influence into his next album and work better on fine tuning his mess of strings on the album. I support creativity and musical differences and congratulate Scherr on releasing an album that he seems to be completely happy with, but this album was not my cup of tea.

Below is a video of Scherr and his bandmates: