The question on everyone's mind is "What does Calgary have other than the fact that a Jamaican bobsled team competed there once?" Well, Calgary also has The Daniel Pelton Collective. Featuring a string quintet, alto sax, percussion, and vocals; their newest EP, The School Sessions is every bit the "jazz, blues, classical, and comedic" record the band said it would be.
It's always a pleasure to review the music of something with influences that are similar to your own. I could roll into Canada, go to Calgary, find Daniel Pelton and Fletcher Dahlman, play Tenacious D, and laugh all night. The School Sessions is very funny, and this crew knows it.
To start with, the music on this EP is incredible. The string quintet is amazing. The alto sax hits epic solos while the percussion holds the whole thing together. Most vocals focus heavily on the concept and history of going to school. You don't want to go to school, but your parents say you have no choice, so you go. Then you finish going to school and leaving is the saddest thing you've ever had to do.
I feel lucky that I had an opportunity to go to college. I Don't Wanna Go To School Tomorrow takes me back to that moment of making the choice of which school to go to and all the fights with my parents leading up to it. I Don't HAVE To Go To School Tomorrow makes me feel the way I felt when I graduated and said it was the worst day of my life. It was the first time I met a lot of the students in the same program I was in. They had all these dreams and plans of where they were going next, but I didn't. I was happy to not have anymore school, but sad that I had no idea about what lay ahead.
But now school's done. I'm free to run into the sun, back to my old ways...
- I Don't Have To Go To School Tomorrow
That's such a fantastic way of describing how the end of college feels. The School Sessions by The Daniel Pelton Collective captures the essence of "going to school." In that, it is a master class. The only problem with this EP is that there's not enough of it. Right now, it's only 4 tracks, but the passion and workspersonship is there. I'm already sure that Daniel, Fletcher, and the rest of the team are working on more. I liked this album a lot, and I hope it feels the same for you.
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