How embarrassed I am, Eric Harland, that I did not know more about you, as your tunes for this jazz festival concert may be the most interesting of the session. Rubalcaba, I have wronged you in my heart in the past.Īnd then, truly, there is Eric Harland! The least known member of this all-star band, put together just for this festival but since become big in its own right. For isn’t your tune “Otra Mirada” a lovely ballad with a set of intriguing harmonies? And do I not hear something marvelous and abstract about your playing, where you seem to be thinking through your improvisations with real intelligence, despite your prodigious technique? Mr. O, Gonzalo Rubalcaba! I tend to think of you as a fleet-fingered Cuban with a tendency to over-ornament your jazz playing.
And “Ask Me Why” closes the recording with a nervously fun note.
“Minotaur” gets its Latin groove on and it lets you move around the notes with muscular herky-jerky-ness. And your jazz compositions are surprising and angular, with a sense of great energy. And you seem to play with everyone these days without allowing even one appearance to seem perfunctory. Will it displease you, Chris Potter, if I mention that you seem like a player with a nice wide Michael Brecker streak - particularly the way you are able to bring every solo to an ecstatic climax? I mean this as high praise. And your two-and-a-half minute bass introduction to “Veil of Tears” is not boring, which is - praise be! - unusual for bass solos.Īnd, truly, O, Chris Potter, your righteous tenor saxophone is an insistent and lyrical wonder that combines keening urgency and a true sense of surprise.
On your composition “Step To It” you get things grooving with a funky, octave-laced bass vamp that locks into a hip melody. And you play a cool-looking acoustic bass that has a very resonant sound. And you announce the songs during this live concert recording in said accent, making everything seem just a little more like Masterpiece Theatre. You anchor the band like a wise man with a subtle English accent. O, Dave Holland, you are the leader of the band, and yet you are a bass player, and that’s unusual. And watching those notes whiz out into the air is dazzling! Modern jazz music, I am impressed (and intimidated) by you!
#JIBBER JAZZ FESTIVAL FULL#
O, modern jazz music! You contain a barrel full of notes, don’t you? Those who play you must have consummate skill and imagination with which to zip those many notes around like a Superball thrown in a racquetball court by Sandy Koufax. I thrill to your skill… and maybe I stop listening just a little bit. O, Monterey Quartet! How splendidly you play your jazz instruments! I listen to you with wonder and some exhaustion.
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