Customer Reviews

Meaning & Mystery

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

 

 

This album features the same lineup as Strange Liberation with the exception of Donny Mccaslin replacing Chris Potter on Tenor Sax and there is no Bill Frisell. I'm a Chris Potter fan, so at first I thought I might be dissapointed in his replacement, but McCaslin's playing is flat out amazing. McCaslin and Dave Douglass have excellent chemistry and there are several songs that feature intertwining solos and melodies. The song writing is great on this album there is a lot of space and everyone which gives all the members of the band a chance to express themselves. There is nothing radically new happening here, but if you want to hear an albumn with creative song writing and excellent playing then pick this one up. Highlights on the album are Culture Wars and Elks club. Apparently Elks club was inspired on a recent trip to Banf where Dave encountered an Elk while writing the song on vacation.

This album is another in the continually expanding Dave Douglas repertoire of great jazz music. This album reminds me of the Dave Douglas I was introduced to when I first heard "The Infinite." If you enjoy Miles, then you can certainly feel his influence on this album (as well as the Infinte)...it doesn't feel like a rip-off of Miles' music, however. The writing by Douglas is absolutely solid and original on this effort, and the musicians are all top-notch performers.

There is not a bad track on this album, and each song sounds new and fresh; giving Douglas' take on what a modern, creative jazz quintet should sound like. Each track has a noticeable melody, and is improvised upon to the maximum skill of each member. "Culture Wars" is one of my personal favorites on the album, and Douglas tears it up with Donny McCaslin on t. sax, uri caine on fender rhodes (what a great, funky sound), james genus on bass, and clarence penn connecting it all together with interweaving drum lines.
This is one of Dave Douglas' best albums to date, and it is really fun to listen to. Every time I listen to this album, I hear a different line in the improv or catch a cool bit of harmony I missed on the last listening. This album will never get old, and grows on you with each listen. I highly recommend this for anyone who wants to know the new shape of jazz and where it is headed.

"Meaning And Mystery" is a new one by the same group who did "The Infinite" and "Strange Liberation" (minus Bill Frisell) with one big change. Tenor man Chris Potter is replaced by Donny McCaslin. Potter and McCaslin aren't interchangeable -- they're both too good for that to be true -- but I think they're similar. So, the essence of the group hasn't changed much. Dave Douglas wrote all the songs, and they are all good. The first half of the album is stronger than the second, but my less-favorite songs like "Elk's Club" are certainly alright. The general sound of the CD is modern mainstream jazz. I say "mainstream" because there's nothing free, the songs have clear melodies and forms, but it's "modern" because they're not straightforward or predictable. Uri plays electric piano, which gives it a distinctive feel. If you like Dave Douglas or anything similar, this is a very good CD to get.

Maybe there is nothing new under the jazz sun. Maybe that is not such a bad thing. But when I found Meaning And Mystery in a pile of decade old, not touched enough CDs, I played it, having little idea of what it was or how I came to own it.

But listening i have figured out why. This reminds me of very early electric Miles Davis. This is not hard funk, but jazz with twisting, sun shifting behind clouds progressions. Lots of unexpected cadences: think of the music both Wayne Shorter and Joe Ziwinal were writing for Davis-and themselves-around '68 and '69, and this is harmonically where Douglas and his band anchor.

Not a bad spot, especially if you are using old style, electric piano, spilling over here. I have always preferred that soft, fuzzy chime of the Fender Rhodes to the cold clean of synthesizers, and you get the former on this album. Whatever your ear likes, your ear likes; but you can't deny the slight blur of the electric piano lends itself to the fluid, dream like, chord structures here--that flow like one paint color spilled into another.

I can't really say i know a lot about this artist, although this CD makes the case for this being fixed. Maybe I will, maybe i won't, but for this late night, of all the CDs in all the piles, this probably fell into my hands for a reason, and the music is that reason.

This is a flat-out amazing recording. Now, I am embarrassed to admit that I had never heard anything by Douglas prior to getting this (don't ask me HOW that happened, because I really don't know), and even if while listening to "Culture Wars" I initially found myself thinking, "this reminds me a little of MD's 'The Ghetto Walk,' crossed with 'Bitches Brew,'" the music builds on its own insinuating melody and groove. (You'll want to read Douglas's liner notes for his intelligent thoughts on how Miles Davis has influenced--and is still influencing--jazz. No sidestepping there, but rather musings from a guy who knows his stuff. He also wittily points out the limitations of liner notes themselves in the process.) And the two tracks that follow--"The Sheik of Things to Come" (love that title) and "Blues to Steve Lacy"--represent a quintet playing at an extraordinarily high level. The tribute to Lacy is beautifully executed (with some outstanding interplay between Douglas and tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin); it's straightforward without being mawkish, full of (emotionally) brilliant corners.

This album features the same lineup as Strange Liberation with the exception of Donny Mccaslin replacing Chris Potter on Tenor Sax and there is no Bill Frisell. I'm a Chris Potter fan, so at first I thought I might be dissapointed in his replacement, but McCaslin's playing is flat out amazing. McCaslin and Dave Douglass have excellent chemistry and there are several songs that feature intertwining solos and melodies. The song writing is great on this album there is a lot of space and everyone which gives all the members of the band a chance to express themselves. There is nothing radically new happening here, but if you want to hear an album with creative song writing and excellent playing then pick this one up. Highlights on the album are Culture Wars and Elks club. Apparently Elks club was inspired on a recent trip to Banf where Dave encountered an Elk while writing the song on vacation.