Love Letters

Gerald Veasley | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 24, 1999)
• Original Release Date: August 24, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Heads Up
• ASIN: B00000K2BI
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #122,945 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

From Jazziz

Like Brian Bromberg, this veteran bassist isn't usually content to take the low road. He plays a six-stringed, electric bass and spends a lot of time in the upper register, often sounding like an acoustic guitar. But some of the highlights on love letters take place when gerald veasley stays low to the ground. On the whimsical sax-bass duet "Valdez in the Country," he engages in a call-and-response pattern with the bubbly-as-always soprano sax of Grover Washington Jr. (with whom Veasley has long toured). The low notes of Veasley's bass contrast with Washington's, creating a nice sense of space. They go on like this over a chunky funk groove before Veasley moves up a few notches for some duet lines.

Teaming up his penchant for moodiness with the atmospheric, hypno-exotic possibilities of guitarist Chieli Minucci makes for a perfect fit, and Veasley swings low under Minucci's high, searing electric and esoteric piano motif on the perfectly titled "Hypnotize." Veasley himself wrote "Love Letter," but it sounds like the kind of dreamy, happily spaced-out experiment that Minucci has done on his non-Special EFX recordings. Bassist and guitarist match note-for-note after a few minutes of Veasley in a supporting role.

"Reaching Out" and "Facing West" are more typical Veasley. The first cut finds him hamming it up with a retro-"Superstition"-styled bass bounce under a crazy-cool honking melody by Eric Marienthal. On "Facing West," he creates the thick, percussive grooves by machine and then lets his bass skip to-and-fro with both melodic lead and harmony line. The resulting effect is like sped-up Metheny.

--- Jonathan Widran, JAZZIZ Magazine Copyright © 2000, Milor Entertainment, Inc.

Product Description

Features Grover Washington Jr, Eric Marianthal & Chieli Minucci. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jazz, even for nonjazz lovers, April 16, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Love Letters (Audio CD)

Maybe I'm influenced by having seen Gerald Veasley perform these songs live in Philadelphia at Zanzibar Blue, but this is such rich, arresting sound that even my wife--who doesn't claim to be a jazz fan--loved it!

Check out the wind solos and the amazing way Veasley makes Bass a convincing solo instrument.

5.0 out of 5 stars Hypnotized!, April 22, 2008

By 

S. Griffin (Tampa, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Love Letters (Audio CD)

I first heard 'Hypnotize' on MusicMatch (the DirecTV Music channel) about 5 or 6 years ago. I loved it then, but had no way to record it (DVR's were pure science fiction then). I heard it again two months ago, searched it down, and bought the CD, having never heard any other cuts. Paydirt! The whole disc is smooth, melodic, soulful, and extremely listenable. It's like a fine bottle of auditory wine. How this guy is not way bigger is completely beyond me.