Boneyard

...the performers play off one another beautifully
Adam Greenberg

Chicago Bassist Kelly Sill's relationship with master pianist/composer Jim McNeely and drummer Joel Spencer reaches back to the 1970's. Boneyard features the result of this long and fruitful collaboration with a selection of McNeely and Sill originals and classics including "Con Alma," "Speak Low" and "In Your Own Sweet Way." Individually, each are powerful influences in Chicago and Midwest jazz and this long-overdue trio recording will certainly further that legacy.

Production Info:

Produced by KELLY SILL
Recorded at Studiomedia, Evanston, IL
Recording engineer: SCOTT STEINMANN
Mixed by SCOTT STEINMAN, KELLY SILL, and JOEL SPENCER
Mastering by JOHN LARSON
Design & Layout JOHN BISHOP

Reviews of Boneyard

All About Jazz (Dan McClenaghan)

All Music Guide (Adam Greenberg)
An excellent trio session from pianist Jim McNeely, bassist Kelly Sill, and drummer Joel Spencer. The Chicago-based trio has been collaborating in various forms for years, and the tightness of the ensemble is apparent in the interplay between musicians here. McNeely takes the lead for much of the album (being the pianist, of course), and shows off ...

all about jazz.com (Ken Dryden)
Jim McNeely, Kelly Sill and Joel Spencer are three old friends who have played together on occasion over the decades but never recorded as a trio until now. Although Boneyard refers to a creek in Champaign, Ill., it might conjure thoughts of overly familiar standards and jazz compositions as performed on many releases. But this trio avoids common p ...

Berman Music Foundation.org (Butch Berman)
I was an only child born in Peoria, Ill., just a couple of stones' throw to Chicago, before we moved to Lincoln when I was one year old. My dad worked for my mom's family, selling jewelry and buying clothes for their store. He'd go to the market in New York semi-annually and fly to meet my mother and me in Chicago for our annual summer vacation. Sh ...

JazzTimes (Tom Conrad)
Jim McNeely is best known as a composer-arranger for large jazz bands. On Boneyard, he applies the mindset of a big-band arranger to the minimalist format of the piano trio. He also gets space (rare in his discography) to display his considerable prowess as a fleet, sophisticated, percussively ornate pianist. McNeely is able to approach this rec ...

Cadence Oct-Dec 2007 (Phillip McNally)
Jim McNeely is of course one of the reigning masters of mainstream Jazz piano, with a pedigree that includes time with the Jones-Lewis Band and with Joe Henderson. I first heard him behind Stan Getz on a night when he stole the show from the fussy saxophone maestro. On "Boneyard" he is, as you would expect, tasteful, neat, in the pocket yet never g ...

All About Jazz.com (Jack Bowers)
Jim McNeely, Kelly Sill and Joel Spencer have been performing together, whenever time and opportunity allowed, since they first met at the University of Illinois more than thirty years ago but had never recorded as a unit until now. After hearing Boneyard many listeners may be wondering why, as it's about as tasteful and charming as a piano-led tri ...

Jazz Review (Mark E. Gallo)
This is solid, straight ahead jazz by three masters of the craft. Covering a program of jazz standards, obscurities and originals, the principals never fail to impress. Opening with the Kurt Weill classic "Speak Low," pianist Jim McNeely, bassist Kelly Sill and drummer Joel Spencer each exhibit a mastery of their instrument throughout the nine sele ...

The Davis Enterprise (Ric Bang)
Pianist Jim McNelly, bassist Kelly Sill and drummer Joel Spencer are well-known musicians who began their careers in the Chicago area. They first met during the 1970's, but as members of other groups. All have played with literally dozens of name organizations: McNeely with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis big band, Stan Getz and Phil Woods; Sill with H ...