Customer Reviews

Bent

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Gary Willis has one of the tightest band known to man. Dennis Chambers does some AMAZING time keeping on this album. Steve Tavaglione played with Miles and has a great funk feel. Kirk Covington also appears on 2 tracks. There's just one keyboard cut (under 2 min), a slower ballad, and the rest of the disc cooks. The title track is like nothing I have heard before. When I die, I'm taking this disc with me. I don't think I own a better disc! Check out some Tribal Tech albums also. Reality Check is a wonderful album as well.

on hearing both of mr willis' solo albums one must be struck at how much he actually contributes to the sound, structure and ideas in Tribal tech. This is good, tasteful and grooving music.
In my opinion Willis is one of the great bass players post jaco pastorius - don't mess around ...just buy it

Great stuff! refreshing to here a bassist who manages to draw on inspiration from other masters, both past (Jaco) and present (Marcus), without actually sounding like them. But for me, a bassist, incidentally, the real star of the show is Chambers: he's simply devastatingly creative and technically exquisite with time manipulation. Willis must agree, because the drums are mixed right in your face. The only reason for not giving 5 stars is the heavy leaniing towards technicality rather than musicality - you can't help concentrating on this music. Buy it!

This album seems to pick up where his previous album "No Sweat" left off, with Gary developing his uniquely lyrical compositional voice. Many of the themes and motifs explored here seem to continue growing, as a natural progression of the themes and motifs explored in the preceding album.

To me, this album doesn't seem to be repetitive or covering the same old ground that "No Sweat" already covered. I can feel that Gary is taking this album in a newer direction, but still firmly rooting it in the traditions and foundations that he's laid previously. It's a wonderful melding of progress and retrospection.

The final track, "Emancipation" seems to build logically to a culmination of everything that Gary's written so far, but it also has a hopeful, forward-looking sense of what lies ahead in his future work. It seem to be a "bridge" song between what came before and what's coming next, if that makes any sense. Plus, the melody of this song just grips me. When I first played this album I was driving to work, and I was so taken with the beauty of the song and how artfully it was arranged that I almost had to pull over to the side of the road. I haven't been so moved by a single song in a long time, and it was exhilirating (and, so to speak, emancipating) to be shaken so deeply, yet so sweetly. The haunting melody and chord progressions would have been amazing in their own right, but I'm still amazed by the way that Gary plays around, through, and between these structures without repeating himself or belaboring the point.

As a fretless bassist, I am continually inspired by the way that Gary weaves and writes his music. This album has given me further inspiration to keep playing and stretching my boundaries.

There's been many days when I forget I have this CD and than I get mad at myself for forgetting it was there. Willis is creative, and isn't a one trick pony ( like Wooten ). He's more definitive, and actually creates real musical paths. The other part that's every bit equally impressive is the drummer. Man he plays with the timing all up front, then comes back to bring the song back. It really is amazing. This album is good from start to finish, minus the song with the harmonica. That song sounds like something you'd hear in Steinmart shopping for pants or something. But I really love this album. Very respectable on many levels, enjoyable, and you will wear this CD out, for sure.

This is Gary's second solo effort. He already wrote the record as a great bass player with Tribal Tech. This album takes his first stellar solo effort and does it better. If you are a bass person, a fusion jazz fan, or just an afficionado of fine music, Bent won't disappoint.

This is a great CD, not only for those of you who, like me, love a great bass player, but also for those of you, like me again, who love great percussion. The technical side is great, without losing too much of the musicality. I can only give it four stars though, because nobody compares to Victor Wooten...