Class Trip

John Abercrombie | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 27, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ecm Records
• ASIN: B0001VQREG
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,066 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunningly, ravishingly beautiful, November 13, 2004

By 

Jan P. Dennis "Longboard jazzer" (Monument, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Class Trip (Audio CD)

With the same line-up (Abercrombie, guitar; Mark Feldman, violin; Marc Johnson, double-bass; Joey Baron, drums) as 2002's great Cat 'n' Mouse, Class Trip mines a vein similar to that beautifully recorded chamberlike jazz, with even more spectacular results. This is ECM fully deploying its rapturous, ecstatic sonic palettes. Could this music have been released on any other label? I don't think so. Could this music have been conceived, played, produced, and presented by any other band? Again, I don't think so.

The key to this music is frontliners Abercrombie and Feldman. They mesh, interweave, dance, cavort, frolic, and gambol with consummate artistry, all the while plaiting magical sonorities and sophisticated, mesmeric songlines. Echoes of earlier passages from Cat 'n' Mouse flit in and out of listeners' consciousness, creating an almost anamnetic, sacramental experience. Marc Johnson and Joey Baron, players of consummate taste and imagination, provide the absolute perfect partners to the magical front line

It's not necessary to have heard the earlier disc, but it helps. Together, they mark the high point for Abercrombie, a jazz guitarist of the absolute first rank, who has found his ultimate setting.

Essential.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunningly, ravishingly beautiful, April 28, 2004

By 

Jan P. Dennis "Longboard jazzer" (Monument, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Class Trip (Audio CD)

With the same line-up (Abercrombie, guitar; Mark Feldman, violin; Marc Johnson, double-bass; Joey Baron, drums) as 2002's great Cat 'n' Mouse, Class Trip mines a vein similar to that beautifully recorded chamberlike jazz, with even more spectacular results. This is ECM fully deploying its rapturous, ecstatic sonic palettes. Could this music have been released on any other label? I don't think so. Could this music have been conceived, played, produced, and presented by any other band? Again, I don't think so.

The key to this music is frontliners Abercrombie and Feldman. They mesh, interweave, dance, cavort, frolic, and gambol with consummate artistry, all the while plaiting magical sonorities and sophisticated, mesmeric songlines. Echoes of earlier passages from Cat 'n' Mouse flit in and out of listeners' consciousness, creating an almost anamnetic, sacramental experience. Marc Johnson and Joey Baron, players of consummate taste and imagination, provide the absolute perfect partners to the magical front line

It's not necessary to have heard the earlier disc, but it helps. Together, they mark the high point for Abercrombie, a jazz guitarist of the absolute first rank, who has found his ultimate setting.
Essential.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice stuff....but...., August 9, 2004

By 

N. Dorward "obsessive reviewer" (Toronto, ON Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Class Trip (Audio CD)

This is the second disc from Abercrombie's "new" quartet, with Mark Feldman, Marc Johnson, & Joey Baron, following the 2002 release _Cat 'n' Mouse_ (Feldman also featured strongly on _Open Land_, a "transitional" album between the hot organ trio that occupied Abercrombie in the 1990s & the new band). It's very close to the previous album in many ways--down to the inclusion of exactly two collective improvisations among the Abercrombie originals--though on the whole it's a more streamlined disc, without the exploratory edge of its predecessor (the previous album had a lot of open space on it). The drifting, moody vibe, with a tendency to metres like 3/4 & 6/8, is broken open by the odd hard moment, like the big climax on the opening "Dansir" or the Ornettish freebop of "Swirls", and there's a nice arrangement of Bartok's "Soldier's Song", but on the whole this does get a bit sameish.... A nice album, but go to _Cat'n'Mouse_ first.