Mike Hyland
![[album cover] Senior Portrait by Mike Hyland](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/650335b65e33fc7087ea6177/1694709183499-EN204NON432G4NENIXBD/Screen+Shot+2022-07-25+at+9.38.31+AM.png)
“Counting Penguins from space”
Required Listening
“Counting Penquins from Space” - Required Listening.
Long known around the Denver jazz scene as an accomplished player and teacher, Hyland’s 2022 release is a brilliant and sublime record, a masterful display of composition and improvisation.
“Counting Penquins from Space” takes us on a journey as beautiful as the NASA images it references. Intro, head, guitar solo, bass solo, piano solo (with some hints of latin), and back to the head with some beautiful drum alterations underneath the entire setting before it gives us an ending that lands like a SpaceX on the pad - perfect. The next track on the record, “Now, Throw it Away” starts off with a hemiola feel before it settles into a subtle lead line that features Hyland and Gabe Mervine (we think, based on a link from KUVO.org) on trumpet. We could go on….we love it that much.
The production is superb. Signals are clean. Balance is perfect. Tones are gorgeous. The audio dorks on staff over here would love to know where this was recorded and what mics were used.
The 7 song “debut” release called “Senior Portrait” should be standard listening for any fan of jazz. Projects like this is why we started this blog, it deserves as much airtime as possible.