Customer Reviews

Beyond Another Wall

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I just got this album, even though it dates back to 1994, and I'm blown away. The cost was worth every penny. I've got other, more recent, George Gruntz albums, and for my money, he's the greatest composer/writer/arranger going, and this is the best jazz band around. Several of these tunes are on other CDs, but the live performances have a raw, no-holds-barred, full-throttle energy that surpasses the raw, no-holds-barred, full-throttle energy of the studio recordings. George Gruntz's genius melds the harmonic innovations of European (and American) concert music with the total, ecstatic energy of jazz. It's not pale experimentation, like other bands that have considered themselves "concert jazz bands," but high-stakes, all-out playing, wild and joyous. Their nearest regularly-playing and touring relative may be the Mingus Band. Pay the money for this, collectors--you've got a chance to hear great playing, and read a provocative philosophic statement to the effect that we need fewer walls in the world, less obstacles to communication. Gruntz mentions the difficulty of getting a jazz band into China, the official apprehension about this music that represents controlled anarchy insinuating itself into the minds of people whose idea of American jazz is Michael Jackson. On every cut, these musicians are going for it--like someone said about John Coltrane--they're always in the process of collapsing one world and creating a new one. And then pick up on George Gruntz's other albums. My particular favorite is the one he did in collaboration with Ray Anderson, but buy them all and choose for yourself. Kudos to the organizations that finance these formidable tours. America used to send great jazz musicians (like Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie) on tour, but we seem to be failing in our homage to one of our greatest gifts to the world. George Gruntz, his backers, and his (mostly American) musicians have seized the torch, and they're charging around the world with it. I'll travel to see this band in person!

The most interesting thing about this album, recorded live in China in about 1990, is that it features Carl Weathersby on guitar. Find out more about Carl Weathersby at carlweathersby.org