Steve Argüelles
Busy Listening
BDV 9406

1. Shambles
2. Nice Work If You Can Get It
3. Squeeze
4. Jelly Roll
5. Rag
6. Busy Listening
7. While Bluberries
8. Nancy D.
9. Valer
10. Recollections
11. The Gig
12. Quelmes
13. Big Fun
14. Old Watchmakers Shop

Steve Argüelles, drums and percussion; Julian Argüelles, saxophones; Huw Warren, accordion; Stuart Hall, guitar and violin; Mick Hutton, bass.

Busy by Name - Easy by Nature An album called 'Busy Listening' on the Babel Label sounds like hard work.
Far from it. Drummer Steve Arguelles has produced a record full of accessible melodies and rich inventive playing, not least from his brother Julian on sax. The whole project exudes a sense of fun and enjoyment.
John Eyles - Today 3 Feb 1995

Guardian '****' (Outstanding)

Steve Arguelles is another drummer leading his own band: Busy Listening (Babel) teams him with brother Julian on alto sax, as well as a pair of palette-changers on accordion and violin. Pneumatic, extrovert and accessible, but not lacking in nervy frills, nostalgia pervades, although the delivery smacks of current times.
Martin Longley, Mojo, March 1995

The instrumental line-up alone suggests this won't be a straightahead album. Key voices are Julian Arguelles on alto, rather than his accustomed tenor sax, Stuart Hall on guitar and violin, and Huw Warren on accordion. Mick Hutton on bass and the leader on drums complete the listing.
The term 'post-modern' comes to mind - though ponderous overtones should be discarded - and a comparison with the Viennese master Franz Koglmann. Like Koglmann, there's a light touch rhythmically, and references to popular dance music of an earlier era. Huw Warren's accordion seems often ironic, and stands apart from the serious bandoneon tradition of Astor Piazzolla and Dino Saluzzi. Suggestions of Loose Tubes whimsy in fact, and the music is maybe too twee for some tastes. That surely won't be true of the plangent 'While Blueberries' with accordion contributing an atmospheric obbligato to Julian Arguelles' mournful sax solo. 'Nancy D', also, is very affecting, though catchy too. 'Recollections' is very different, a tone picture for gamelan percussion sounds. Like most tracks, these are original compositions by Steve Arguelles ('Nancy D' in collaboration with Django Bates)'. Also featured are Mingus's 'Jelly Roll', Bill Frisell's 'Rag' and John Scofield's 'Big Fun', converted into a hoe-down.
The Arguelles brothers must be credited for trying something new, in sound and composition, and often succeeding.
Andy Hamilton, Jazz on CD, March 1995

The combination of drummer Steve with brother Julian on alto, Stuart Hall (guitar and fiddle), Huw Warren (accordion) and Mick Hutton on string bass is one of life's little pleasures. Cafe jazz with a distinctively European sound; while a gentle sense of humour (a Babel speciality) is never far from the smiling surface, the playing is as exact and expressive as you'd expect from these names - bro Julian is a joy to listen to. The compositions (mostly the leader's, nestling in cheekily against a Gershwin and a Mingus), echo folk and dance melodies from the stately to the excited, complement the moods and feel of the lineup like a bottlle of red wine apiece - an ear to the past but a music made in and for the now, tasteful and tasty as you could want.
Venue March 1995

Steve Argüelles is joined by brother Julian, among others, on the aptly titled Busy Listening; there can be few percussionists, anywhere, who are as consistently interesting and inventive as Steve.
Pete Martin, Jazz UK, March/April 1995