The history of bringing together superstars is mixed, sometimes people don't mesh the way you'd hope. In this case, you could've guessed Gary Burton, Chick Corea, and Pat Metheny would be simpatico. The result is as you'd expect, harmonious jazz songs. The ideal jazz for me has some blues, or dissonance, or funk, or some impolite parts. Sometimes my wife likes to call it "neurotic". My wife likes this CD, it isn't "neurotic". I like it too, it's good, but not the stuff I'd listen to 100% of the time. "Like Minds" is my favorite song. So far I haven't talked about Dave Holland -- his playing is very diverse, and he's great on this CD. This is the only modern Roy Haynes drumming I have, he's still as good as when he played on Coltrane's "Impressions".
December 10, 2006 |  | Blissful, transcendent jazz |  |
Not having heard the (apparently) inferior sound of the original recording, I'm struggling to imagine its problems. You see, the sound on this SACD hybrid is nothing short of ravishing, save, perhaps, for a slight thinness that occasionally crops up in relation to Corea's piano which, oddly, seems to lack the brilliance and sonority of the very best instruments. The sound image, apart from that small annoyance, is simply stunning for the rest of the instruments, especially Roy Haynes's drums, which snap, snarl, and bubble with consummate authority. Complaints about Metheny being underrecorded on the original disc, or there being a general lack of clarity, simply do not appertain.
As far as the the performances, this disc finds the players completely engaged and in finest conversational fettle. Whatever is called for--fleetness, emotion, group interaction--each member delivers, seemingly offhandedly, gracing the proceedings with a aura of musical authority that cannot be gainsaid. Indeed, the sheer fluidity, the ease of execution, belies jazz enacted at the very highest level of expression.
This transcendent disc has scarcely left my player since I recently acquired it. I'm convinced it represents a high point in the careers of all the players. Highest recommendation. November 14, 2003
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