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Album: Leap of Faith
Artist: Bill Cornish
The marvels of Modern Musical Technology now allow just one guy to sound like a whole orchestra,
using electronic and sampling synthesizers, drum machines, “atmosphere generation,” and lots of
multitracking. San Diego’s Bill Cornish is one of these one-man orchestras, using his keyboard skills
to create what sounds like the production of a studio band or at least a well-balanced jazz ensemble.
There’s a kind of polished commercial quality to this music, and I could well imagine it as the
soundtrack to either a leisure-oriented TV program or an ad for something upscale like wine or fine cars.
Cornish knows his jazz harmonies, and shows them well on cuts like “Shinto” (track 1), and
“On the Shores of Cape Breton,” (track 2). No boring three-chord minimalism here. On other tracks,
such as “The Falls of Multnoma” (track 6) he recreates a “folk-jazz” sound, led by a melodic line
on the (sampled for keyboard) oboe, that harkens back to the Windham Hill sound of the ‘80s. It’s got a
kind of easygoing California sensibility, though he sometimes throws in some “world” influences from the
Middle East.
But that is only mildly spicy, not overpowering. There are no hard edges to this music, no electric guitars
or “tribal” percussion; it’s meant to be pleasant and undisturbing. Even the up-tempo title track, “Leap
of Faith” (track 12) is a kind of diluted echo of old-time synthesizer rock. Perhaps this album lacks the
assertion and aggression of more ambitious one-man synthesizer efforts, but its gentleness, in these
troubled times, is also a virtue.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Reviewed by Hannah M.G. Shapero 10/7/2001
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