Vancouver Sun Review

Guitarist Ryan Drolet and his quartet's approach to the improvised instrumental falls somewhere between composed fusion and electric jam.

No, I don't mean the sprawling, String Cheese Incident style of jamming, but a more controlled form where the players create an idea, then explore it with their instruments.

The eight originals on Trippin' Wet (Drolet wrote seven, the eighth is a group effort), the guitarist's debut disc, have the leader accomplishing something different each time. He's in John Abercrombie mode on Rubber Band, providing a long guitar solo with a biting tone before pianist Dan Graham stretches out on the acoustic keyboard. Drolet sounds more like Wes Montgomery on the melody of Amian.