2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Pedigree is important but it does not a composer make, August 6, 2007
This review is from: Internet (Audio CD)
Charnett Moffett is a true virtuoso bassist. His upright playing is in league with Christian McBride and other young jazz bassists. As is often the case, monster players are not always great compsers and vice versa. It is true that sometimes great players are great composers, more often than not the two talents are usually mutually exclusive. Internet is recorded well and the performances are impressive. The songs however are not memorable and the melodies are forgettable, there are no "hooks" to grab the listener.
GEM is dedicated to the classic John Coltrane quartet of the early 1960's of Jimmy Garrison, Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner. Unfortunately there is not a lot of Coltrane melodic ideas to be heard on this track. Charnette's playing is extremly aggressive and powerful, but that is not enough for most listeners including other bassists. Mr. O.C. again is in a way a tribute to John Coltrane and the title evokes Coltrane's Mr. P.C. for Paul Chambers. In fact it is dedicated to Ornette Coleman for whom Charnette is named, his name being a composite of his dad Cody and Ornette. This is perhaps the strongest track on the entire recording as everyone performs very well. There are some other bright spots particularly when Charnette plays his picollo bass and focuses on supplying melodic ideas over technical prowess. Charnette's playing as a sideman is generally more impressive and was especially so when he was in his early 20's and played with the Marsalis brothers and Tony Williams on such recordings as Williams' Civilization. As a sideman Charnette is directed more and so delivers more focused playing. It appears he benefits from this as his playing is more balanced in these situations.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
