Customer Reviews

Green Field

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

How great is Steve Khan?

Very great, if The Green Fields is any indication.

This is a masterful disc. Sometimes these things just happen: right company (that is, personnel and disc purveyor), stars aligned, whatever. Everything works optimally here. Patitucci and DeJohnette seem the perfect dialogic partners. I think it helps that they're sidemen, not leaders. Their recent sessions as leaders (e.g., The Elephant Sleeps but Still Remembers [DeJohnette] and Songs, Stories & Spirituals [Patitucci]) strike me as slightly indulgent, but their work here is beyond criticism.

Kahn hasn't always found the right context to ultimately present his huge chops and unique vision. For example, his work with Rob Mounsey seems too New Age-y and precious. That's not a problem here. What we've got is relaxed rigor: killer grooves combined with vast rhythmic exploration and dancing melodicism.

Music of the highest possible accomplishment. Highly recommended.

Steve Khan's Green Field is appropriately named: it is a fertile, sweeping plain of musical feeling and insight that fills the listener with both peace and awe. There is something special about the trio of Khan, DeJohnette and Pattitucci that one finds almost nowhere else: the ability of each player to make their own unique mark on the music while at the same time contributing to a cooperative sum greater than the three put together.

Khan has long been a favorite of mine for a couple simple reasons: his melodies are catchy, his solos are articulate and moving, and his sense of rhythm (and accompaniment) provide Bill Evans-like brush strokes that are perfectly appropriate. DeJohnette, as most know, is a master musician whose drumming is like fire and ice--controlled and understated until you come to understand the power that lurks just beneath the graceful surface. Patitucci blends in marvelously--he drives the momentum and provides melodic interest all at the same time.

In my view, Steve Khan is one of the most underrated guitar players in jazz today. He shouldn't be. As this disk will show you, his smart melodies and beautifully architectural improvisations rank with the very best. I highly recommend this disc. It will make you a fan.

Steve Kahn has been producing terrific music for decades as both a sideman and a leader. His early work with the Brecker Brothers, his lynch-pin playing on Steely Dan's "Gaucho", and his pre-Eyewitness sessions all raised the bar of what an innovative, professional guiatrist/musician/composer should be. His influnce on current jazz guitar is profound if unrecognized. Kahn's Eyewitness work through to this amazing recording (The Green Field) shows his continued progress. He taps into all he's done and elevated it into a unique and coherent masterpiece.

Kahn has always chosen the best of the best to support him, with an almost clairvoyent knowledge of bringing in the perfect artists for the project at hand. The Green Field is no exception - Patitucci and DeJonette work wonders with Kahn's compositions. Their individual voices never overpower the peices but bring out the emotional core of them. As Dennis Chambers and Anthony Jackson did on Crossings and Al Foster and Ron Carter did on Headline - both highly recommended - Patitucci and DeJonette allow each piece to unfold and take flight. Really something!

Kahn the guitarist is again in top form. His beautiful chord work and warm tones are rich and comforting with an edge of urgency and humor. His weaving solo lines walk you through the landscapes of each piece, tranporting you into the "paintings" and make listening a rare individualized experience.

I hope the time will come when Steve Kahn recieves the attention and recognition he so deserves, but I'm very grateful that this hasn't kept him from producing some of the worlds best music of the past 20 years.

Other essential Kahn titles:

Headline, Crossings, Public Access, Casa Loco, New Horizons (w/ Caribbean Jazz Project).

Great percussion!! I like the work that khan has been doing in the last few years. Jazz with a Latin touch.

After the release of GOT MY MENTAL one of the most original and creative Jazz-Guitarists of our time presents his new album in almost the same line-up. As early as in 1981 Khan issued one of the outstanding recordings in modern jazz, EYEWITNESS, presenting melodical and rhythmical concepts that were unheard until then, by adding an percussionist with equal rights to the classic jazz-guitar-trio-concept. Steve Khan has taken this concept to an even higher level in THE GREEN FIELD with Jack DeJohnette (dr), John Pattitucci (acoustic bass) and Manolo Badrena (perc). Khan's unique guitar voicings and soloing style show influences of Wayne Shorter and Larry Young as well as McCoy Tyner. Original tunes as "El Vinon", "Fist In Glove" and "The Green Field" do offer references to Elvin Jones, Wes Montgomery or Larry Young but are presented with a fresh approach that is leading beyond modern guitar-trio-jazz. With the help of guests appearances of additional percussionist Ralph Irrizary and Robert Quintero standards as "Nefertiti" or "You Stepped Out Of A Dream" both turn into modern cha-cha-arrangements symbolising the marriage of Jazz and Latin Percussion into music of its own rights on the highest possible level without compromising on artistic value. My personal highlights include the title track and "Cosecha Lo Que Has Sembrado" which was dedicated to Tito Puente, giving each percussionist plenty of room for tremendous solo performances. From my point of view, THE GREEN FIELD is Steve Khan's best album to date.

Jack DeJohnette is my favorite drummer. I also love the way John Pattitucci plays, and Manolo Badrena is awesome. What I've heard of this album sounds cool, but nowhere near as hip as Steve Khan's album 'Public Access' with Anthony Jackson, Dave Weckl and Manolo Badrena. I don't know why Manolo Badrena doesn't have more of a solo career, he an amazing musician playing percussion and singing. Steve Khan sounds great, but I wish he would put out more albums with less straight ahead stuff. I was disappointed with the version of 'Riot', it's so much heavier on the Miles recording (was it Nefertitti or Sorcerer?). I don't know why people insist on performing the music of Miles Davis in a way that lacks the fire and intensity of the original recordings.

Steve did it again. This is a spectacular cd all around. His choice of performers could not be better and it is obvious while listening that they were 'on the same note'--in agreement as to where the music should go. I will be enjoying this music for years to come. Thanks Steve!