Jazz in the Garden

Stanley Clarke Trio Featuring Hiromi & Lenny White | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 12, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Heads Up
• ASIN: B001VFM0QU
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,182 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #81 in Music > Music Deals > More Titles at Least 25% Off

Editorial Reviews

No Description Available.
Genre: Jazz Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 12-MAY-2009

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THIS GREAT ACOUSTICAL JAZZ TRIO IS A TRIUMVIRATE !!!, May 12, 2009

By 

RBSProds "rbsprods" (Deep in the heart of Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jazz in the Garden (Audio CD)

Five ACOUSTICAL Stars!! This CD captures a great jazz 'Triumvirate' bristling with freshness, inventiveness, and new musical horizons. Jazz bass colossus Stanley Clarke formed this trio with his old 'Return to Forever' (RTF) drum stablemate Lenny White and the enormously-gifted Japanese jazz keyboard artist Hiromi. Mr Clarke is on both acoustical upright double bass violin and acoustical bass guitar. Messrs Clarke and White are indelibly linked with splendid 'RTF' keyboard titan Chick Corea. Hiromi, influenced both by Chick Corea (see Duet (Chick Corea & Hiromi) and piano legend Ahmad Jamal, is a formidable pianist/synth artist who leads her own high-energy dynamic groups, such as 'Sonic Boom' as heard on Time Control. Despite the players individual electric/fusion roots, these performances are all acoustical (and Clarke 'ups the ante' playing shoulder-slung acoustical bass guitar on the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Under The Bridge"). The repertoire consists of jazz fusion, standards, bebop, funk, and Japanese fusion impressionism and everyone is in superb form.

The 'best of the best' begin with the incredible "Global Tweak" with Clarke and Hiromi getting off some prodigious solos amid their interactions, with White sitting out. The most successful performances begin with the programmatic "Paradign Shift" and and the shimmering "Sakura Sakura". "Brain Training" is wonderfully complex and finds Hiromi swinging hard as Clarke and White push her along and solo in their own right. The beautiful "Sicilian Blue" has Clarke bowing in a rare beautiful demonstration of his superb acro abilities before Hiromi breaks free for a great but brief solo. "Someday My Prince Will Come" is a huge Clarke solo with ethereal backing. "Take the Coltrane" has Stanley and Lenny in a wonderful dialogue that is a 'wink back' to the legendary interaction of Trane's guys Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones. The attractive theme "3 Wrong Notes" has a great solo by Hiromi, showing the influences of Bud, Bird, and Bill pushed by Stanley's idiomatic walking ability. Joe Henderson's "Isotope" is hard-swinging trio joy and Hiromi's left hand, soloing at times, is amazing showing her true ambidextrous ability that puts her in a special class of keyboard wizardry. This is an outstanding trio performance that works on many levels: individually, collectively, and compositionally: wonderfully recorded with all players at a clear, high level on the CD soundscape. Kudos to all concerned. This CD is Highly Recommended. Five EMPATHETIC Stars!

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Jazz in the Garden, May 19, 2009

By 

Matthew Miller "jazzplayer" (New York, New York) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Jazz in the Garden (Audio CD)

I don't think this lineup needs an introduction. Stanley and Lenny are fresh off the Return to Forever Reunion tour and they have paired up with one of the most talented young voices on piano, Hiromi. They have given themselves a nice range of material to work with: everything from standards in the jazz canon (someday my prince will come, isotope) to rock favorites (under the bridge).There is no need to say that they each perform excellently on each track.

The appeal of this band is undoubtedly the non-standard tact it brings to a trio outing like this. Stanley and Lenny are perhaps best known as pillars of the fusion supergroup Return to Forever and have each had extensive careers in that field. Hiromi has made a name for herself as an eclectic musician, bringing together interesting groups of musicians playing music in strange time signatures or with other similar quirks. Although this is an acoustic trio, they cant shake off the fusion. This leads to some really great reinterpretations of jazz standards. "Take the Coltrane" sounds normal enough at first, but it becomes immediately clear that Stanley dominates this version. Clarke has a unique way around the acoustic bass which allows him lead the song like a horn player or pianist might in any other combo. Similarly, the Joe Henderson tune "Isotope" starts off like any other, but is taken command of like few others. This time Hiromi also lends her hand at a spectacular solo.

there are also a handful of originals which are every bit as lively. My favorite is the album opener "Paradigm Shift (election day 2008)" which goes through two movements and provides what seems to me to be the most complete musical expression on the album. Also the Red Hot Chili Peppers song 'under the bridge' has truly spectacular Hiromi solo.

It isn't all good. First off, I dont know what that psuedo traditional Japanese sounding instrumentation at the beginning of 'Sakura Sakura' is supposed to do, especially since they do the rest of the song like a normal jazz tune, it sounds sort of out of place. I am also disappointed that Lenny white did not open up more on the drums. While he is an excellent background drummer, I felt often that he was sort of restrained behind the rest of the band. He had a few places to ope up, but not that much.

Ultimately, this was a real fun album. Not by any stretch the best any of these artists have done, but a really solid album that wont disappoint any fan.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wow! this is great, October 7, 2009

By 

K. Davidson - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jazz in the Garden (Audio CD)

this is undoubtably the best jazz trio cd iv"e purchased in the last ten years or so, possibly because of my admiration for hiromi. well young lady you placed yourself with some great talent and i"m sure you enjoyed playing with them, you fitted in as easily as placing a hand in a glove, great jazz suits you, i love it and am not taking anything away from your partners in this endevour. you are a very talented group, we can only sit back and hope for more ef the same in the near future, well done, would love to increase the star rating higher if it were possible. the very best of luck to the three of you as time goes by