Customer Reviews

Dancing on the Edge of the World

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I had been looking for this CD for years until recently when I purchased it by sheer luck. Kit's musical style is truly remarkable. Every track on the album is outstanding, from "Spacewalk" to "When the Mountains Talk" to "Wind and Water". With the help of musicians Steve Smith and Andy Narell, this is one of the finest Smooth Jazz albums ever made! Buy it if you can find it!

Yes, this CD is very special to me. I'd catagorize this with my happy music series. It takes you from shear happiness and joy to inter-galactic inner peace. I know that may sound a bit out there, but you must have it in your collection to know what I mean. I'm truly blessed to have found this CD again after losing it with around 600 other CD's in my first collection. I won't go into that sad part of my life, but this CD should have been re-issued years ago. I'd like to know what Kit is up to lately, because he's a true talent.

I interviewed Kit Walker around the time this album came out, and he was a very good interview. He was very quiet and laid back, but over the phone one could sense the intensity with which he followed his music and his passion. This recording was an eye opener for me, and I realized that Walker was on the verge of tapping into jazz, fusion and new age and as he said breaking down boundaries. This adventurism is something that has colored all his work since.

"Natural Habitat," with its thumping rhythm section and layered keyboards is a great beginning. "Spacewalk" features Zakir Hussein on tabla, and a number of Windham Hill friends such as Andy Narell appear here. "Temple of Stars" and "When the Mountains Talk" were also favorites of mine.

This is great intro to Kit Walker's music. I've played it countless times over the years to friends, including musicians, and they all get it to one extent or another. I think you will as well.

This is an excellent CD and it should be on every real jazz lovers IPod! Very melodic with a lot of action. Kit and the musicians put much care and there hearts in this one. My favorite is "wind and Water". The bass player (Keith Jones) is on his game. Andy Narrell and the percussionist (Glen Cronkhite) were kicking! My 18 year old son plays the bass, and really likes it to. You can tell, these guys were playing hard to pay the bills. Please listen with a good set of headphones (Grado SR80's or Koss Port-a-Pro's). You will be amazed.

Still a great album by piano and synthesizer player Kit Walker, despite its relatively ancient vintage (1987), perhaps best described as New Age with balls, on the Windham Hill Jazz label. Like most Windham Hill Jazz releases, this one is an SF Bay Area collaboration with no small measure of input from the highly talented pansman Andy Narell, who plays and co-produces. The usual local support crew abound, here including the likes of Steve (Journey & Steps Ahead) Smith on drums, Keith Jones on bass (and what a bass player he is) and Norbert Stachel on sax. Also featured are Tony Pagano (flute and piccolo), Zakir Hussein (tabla), Pete Escovedo (congas, timbales & percussion) and yet more percussion c/o Glenn Cronkhite. A most impressive cast of fine musicians.

This superb collection of instrumental compositions hasn't dated at all, much of it remaining wonderfully uplifting, not least in view of the ace recording/production. The follow up, Fire In The Lake, was a great disappointment, but this one's lovely and, in my experience, quite his best work. It's just so full of life and beauty. Perhaps a US West Coast foil to Friedemann's (magical) Indian Summer from the same year, though I have to say that for me this one has the edge, principally because it's got more backbone.

Highly recommended, not least for outstanding tracks such as Temple of Stars and the solo piano composition I'll Meet You There which closes the album. Miss this one and your life will be poorer. Bag it and your life will be enriched.