Customer Reviews

Modern Answers to Old Problems

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

 

 

Sensational from start to finish, I have heard them all and this up there with best of music ever made. My hair stands on end every time I hear it. The music is fresh, vibrant and balanced in such a way - only a true master can. The band is very tight, the vocals a sublime embellishment. One of my favorites ever, don't listen to the nay sayers here - BUY IT it will stay with you forever no mater what your taste.

I read about this artist in a recent "Guitar Player" magazine review and was intrigued by their comments. I LOVE the Afro-Jazz flavor! Ernest's guitar riffs complement the rhythmic bass well. The female vocalist also is a bonus. Lovers of saxophonists will find the Courtney Pine track a delight. If you are ready to experiment with a quality cd that is different from the normal jazz CDs in your collection, this will be a treat.

Take an old Jamaican reggae-bluesman, a troupe of African drummers, a couple of young jazz stalwarts and a gutsy female singer, mix them up with some inspired grooves, light the fuse and stand back because this is a seriously hot combination!

True to its title, "Modern Answers to Old Problems" combines "acid-jazz" with "world music" to come up with some of the freshest sounds around. With more than a passing nod to Weather Report's "Black Market", each track combines Ranglin's marvellous rolling guitar playing and some of the tightest percussion work you'll ever hear with the inherently uplifting feel of African chord sequences to generate real enthusiasm & fun - a rare outcome when there is such complex inter-play around. And... if you're not already into Ernest Ranglin's unique form of Afro/jazz/hip-hop/blues, well, as my son said when he gave me this superb record, "you will be".

If you are an avid Ranglin fan, I think you'll find his latest album to be disappointing. The previous albums, "In search of the lost riddim," "Below the baseline" and "Memories of Barber Mack," are ingenious light-hearted attempts to mix African/Jazz/Reggae and produce some sweet sounds. After listening to all three of those albums, you wish there was more, so naturally, when I heard about his new one-- I was anxious to purchase it. The album, right off the start is too produced and too 'modern,' solely propelled by the wurlitzer organ, which in my opinion is a terrible addition. Get some piano in there, some Monty Alexander-- The african musicians that are listed on the packaging trick you into thinking that the album is going to be real rootsy like "In Search..." Instead there is an unecessary flood of chintzy chimes and snythisizer sounds. Even the African singing that is usually so beautiful becomes marred by synthisizer effects. There is some good here and there, specifically by way of Ranglin's great guitar playing, but otherwise the music sounds like something being pumped in a dentist's office. Get some African drum circle work in there, get the studio produced mumbo-jumbo out- Ranglin needs to find his roots once again, in the jungles of Africa.