Continuation

Alex Cline | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 10, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Cryptogramophone
• ASIN: B001NOMO5G
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #261,547 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

No description available.
Genre: Jazz Music
Rating:
Release Date: 0000-00-00
Media Type: Compact Disk

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece, February 14, 2009

By 

Music maven (Amherst, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Continuation (Audio CD)

If you only read Cline's liner notes for this CD, which are full of philosophically tortuous phrases like "the designation I call 'I'", you might expect a lot of New Age noodling in the music. And certainly the music is profoundly meditative, but the key qualifier here is that word "profound." Cline and his bandmates manage an almost impossible combination of peace and intensity. Every note is exactly the right note, the only note for that moment, and no matter how slow or spacious the setting, the feeling is never languorous. You get the sense that each musician is intensely present, floating in a rushing stream in that actively passive way that Buddhism aspires to. Peggy Lee's cello playing, especially, is wonderfully expressive and passionate (she's always interesting in her recordings, but never more beautiful than on this CD). Cline plays an enormous kit on this session, but you would never know it--his uses it for color and places himself in a supporting role, adding exactly the right notes in exactly the right places. His solo introduction to "On the Bones of the Homegoing Thunder" is a masterpiece of texture, dynamics, and expression, and gives a sense of the enormous technique he could bring to bear if he chose. But like everyone else on this recording, he serves the music and uses only the necessary notes. Many years ago, in one of Robert Fripp's wonderful columns for Musician magazine he wrote, "Music is the cup that holds the wine of silence." That sublime idea has never been more perfectly manifested than here.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alex Cline's best work?, February 10, 2009

By 

Etan Rosenbloom "Toe Surgeon" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Continuation (Audio CD)

This album is a gift. Like much of Alex Cline's previous work, Continuation is meditative and expansive in the compositional and global sense - it's a completely open system, taking in both eastern compositional aesthetics and a European refinement in the performances. Take a gander at Anne Fishbein's photos in the liner notes. They capture each member of Cline's ensemble in a moment of serene concentration. That's Continuation to a T. Whether this band is in full-band improv mode ("On the Bones of the Homegoing Thunder"), creepy mood piece mode ("Fade to Green") or lyrical soaring mode ("Open Hands (Receive, Release)"), there's a centeredness that keeps it all of a piece. Continuation's vistas wouldn't feel so panoramic were it not for the elite musicians that Cline has assembled. Violinist Jeff Gauthier and `cellist Peggy Lee each take particularly lyrical solo flights on "Steadfast;" Scott Walton's foundational bass pumps and thrums throughout. Myra Melford's harmonium girds the band's modal grooves, her piano seeks ecstatic free jazz peaks. And then of course there's Cline himself, whose startling command over every element in his massive kit is outweighed only by his restraint in using it. This album's 77 minutes are fully deserved.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not enough talent, May 24, 2009

By 

Hitters (Buenos Aires, Argentina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Continuation (Audio CD)

An ambitious project, the record intends to be spiritual, misterious and deep. Unluckily, I simply do not think the music to be interesting enough to justify listening to the whole disc. I say this being a person who LOVES long ideas and records. But there is in my opinion not enough melody, rhythm, groove or mistery to make you stay hooked to what's going on. Besides the musical contents, the recoding quality is fantastic. Natural, spacious sound (the bass on track 2 is demonstration class).