Customer Reviews

Live at the Jazz Gallery

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

 

 

Do not pay attention to the last two reviews. If you like modern jazz you will love this record. No its not like Premonition his previous CD.In fact its much better. Premonition was about mood this one is about power. All of the players are great including Miguel Zennon and brother and sister Avishai & Anat Cohen . However its Jason Linders writing that really stands out. This one did make my top ten list. I say give it a chance.

A brilliant modern jazz pianist leads an excellent group of musicians through new compositions for this large ensemble. Piano-based, this music is very creative, light, airy, & floating. Other comparable musical collaborations come to mind like those of Maria Schneider, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and Carla Bley. As stated by an All Music Guide review by Michael G. Nastos - "A very rich, fully realized, and conceptually brilliant effort, this live recording of Lindner and friends comes highly recommended, and is easily one of the best contemporary jazz recordings of 2007."

after my first listen i was a little dissapointed, the hype for this was overblown, first thing i noticed, was the early 70s don ellis influence, as well as a slight radiohead influence, wich is an interesting combination. but to be honest ,dave holland is making bigband albums better than this,also the featured saxist , his tone came of like a poor mans jackie mclean, but of pitch, so that grated after a while, now on second listen i felt that the themes were a little better ,and the mood was more enjoyable, i feel the band was under rehearsed, if they tighten it up a bit, and maybe sprinkle some buddy rich bigband influence in, ill be more interested. my thinking there is i need a little more heat, more drive, but overall its worth hearing and not a disaster, just over hyped.

I am not a musician but I enjoy "big band" music from Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Gerald Wilson to Charles Mingus, Cecil Taylor's European Jazz Orchestra and Sun Ra. This CD was included on the best of 2007 lists in a few major Jazz publications. I was really disappointed. The compositions are weak and repetitive and become tiresome very quickly. The first track on the first CD was appropriately faded because it was going nowhere. The ensemble playing is middling at best with undistinguished solos and the drumming sounds very clumsy. Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra's Sky Blue deserved all the positive reviews it got for 2007 if you like "big band" music.

I really don't like writing negative reviews but in this case I felt I had to. I purchased this 2 CD album based on my liking of Jason Lindner's "Premonition" album and the fact that I heard a cut from this recording on our local jazz/classical station ('The Five Elements and the Natural Trinity'). The other cuts on this CD, however, are disappointing. Repetitive, dull rythyms..uninspired solos..sloppy band synchronization. I 'exposed' several other jazz listeners to this album and their general opinions were much the same.