Customer Reviews

Ethnomusicology, Vol 2

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This is a great album from Gunn. Jazz is supposed to progress, and he does it with attitude. His playing is the most mature I've heard him. More attention should be paid to him, because the boy can play. He and Roy Hargrove play harder than any of the other young lions. He possesses fire in his playing, but his music is very smooth. His emotional playing is at its best on "Dance of the Concubine" and "Lyne's Joint." Monk would praise his work on "Epistrophy," and Duke would smile upon hearing his playing on "It Don't Mean a Thing..." His band deserves a lot of credit and praise. Kebbi Williams' tenor playing is very good, and Woody's drumming is great. Andre Heyward's trombone solos are very soulful. This is a great band and a good album to have. I look forward to more of Gunn's music. It's very creative, and that makes the cd that much better! Volume 3?

I've followed Russell Gunn's career since I heard him on Wynton Marsalis's "Blood on the Fields" being a black man,musician, and trumpeter I understand where he's coming from. The first track Thelonious Monk's "Epistrophy" Gunn comes blazing with fiery guitar riffs and Dj Apollo's wheelz of steel. We hear Gunn play a solo which obviously displays his fire. Later in the piece Gunn showcases his rap skills. Listening to the lyrics he tells of how "would you like me better if I wore my hair short.." A lot of jazz musicians feel wearing a suit defines how serious you are about the music. It is so releiving to see someone just focusing on the music and not the gimmick. Mellowing out with "Dance of the Concubine" and "I Wish". I also particularly love "Kebbie Williams Interlude" which has that drum&bass jungle kind of feel. And "Caravan" is tighttt with his horn arrangment at the bridge. I feel more is to be expected from this underrated composer, arranger, and trumpeter.

This is a unique and (I'm sure contraversial) kind of jazz, but all music must be innovated to stay alive. Gunn plays several kinds of horns, all with great force, rhythm and passion. The band I saw had a pianist (both electric and acoustic), a bassist, a drummer, a percussionist (with every kind of instrument, all played very well), Gunn on trumpet and a tenor sax player as well as trademark DJ Apollo. Gunn will probably be known as the innovator that gave "scratching" a place in jazz, to be treated as what it is: an instrument of the 20th and 21st Centuries! The songs are like jazz everyone can groove to. It is very easy to fell the artist's passion through simply a CD.
If you are studying jazz (I learned about him through a school project) you can understand jazz composition easily without listening to music that sounds sterile or like an ancient history lesson. This composition is a living piece of history! A must for any jazz listener

I'll admit, I was a big fan of fusion in the '70's. This work brings that sort of energy back to me. It's an incredible fusion of modern hip-hop rythms, jazz, and rock. Owning this CD is guaranteed to make you the coolest person on the block.