Customer Reviews

Live at Montreux

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

 

 

Once upon a time, there was a new start-up label called Windham Hill. A small west coast enterprise that had been the shared vision of Will Ackerman and Anne Robinson, its founders, it boasted a stable of fresh talent the likes of which few such new labels did. And, to keep operational matters under control, rather than dilute its own efforts, Windham Hill partnered with A&M Records to handle its distribution in those early days. A smart move at the time.

Some years later, Windham Hill became "the Windham Hill Division of BMG" and, for those who know the BMG entertainment conglomerate (Bertelsmann Music Group) story, it is, in microcosm, the story of "how not to run a music enterprise." In time, most of the talent in that stable moved on, some to find happy homes elsewhere and some not.

One of the casualties of the various Windham Hill "catalog shakeouts" that were part of BMG's "corporate pain" over the years was this early Darol Anger effort, "Live at Montreux: Darol Anger/Barbara Higbie Quintet." It was among my initial Windham Hill acquisitions virtually two decades ago. (Shortly afterward, I acquired another Darol Anger effort, "Chiaroscuro," featuring a near-identical artist complement, but a studio production rather than a live concert.)

In fact, this album *was* "my first fix of Anger," a fact for which I'm grateful to Will Ackerman, since I've subsequently become a Darol Anger completist. And, although this album may no longer be in the Windham Hill catalog, it is listed here, copies from Amazon marketplace partners are available, and that is good enough for me to write about this "first fix."

The quintet, recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival (in Montreux, Switzerland at an "Evening with Windham Hill"), includes Darol on violins, Barbara Higbie on piano, Mike Marshall on guitar and mandolin, Todd Phillips on acoustic bass and Andy Narell on steel drums. For its time, this ensemble instrumentation produced a totally fresh and unique sound, not least of which was due to Andy Narell's steel drum work, in addition to Darol's totally fresh approach to fiddling.

Some of the highlights of this collector's item:

The lead-off track, "Egrets," features great steel drum work by Andy Narell and acoustic bass by Todd Phillips.

"The Lights In The Sky Are Stars" has nice piano work by Higbie, guitar work by Marshall, and swinging violin by Anger, with more great steel drum back-up work by Narell. This track, as much as any, defined a new steel drum style that wasn't calypso. It's improvised - and totally acoustic - jazz. Period.

"Daughter of Cups" is a nicely lyrical Higbie piano work. "Egypt" opens with Marshall on mandolin, with Higbie, Narell and Phillips setting a good rhythm line; then Anger comes swerving in with his violin, with a chorus that is full of his quirky offbeat rhythms, jazzy ornamentation and soaring lines. Higbie then takes the melody from Anger; makes a nice improvisatory run with it, and hands it off to Narell for his solo, to close out the track.

"In What Hour" starts with a piano/guitar intro; then Darol swinging away on his violin. Once again, there is excellent bass support from Phillips and percussion from Narell. The piece bridges to an upbeat tempo in the final 2 minutes or so, nicely swinging, everyone getting their licks in. Nice warm audience reaction at the end.

"Tideline" has a nice hard-driving pulse set up by Higbie and reinforced by Phillips; this time Anger takes it up into the higher strings, swapping licks with Marshall on mandolin.

"Near Northern" may be my favorite "early Windham Hill track" irrespective of artist(s). Simply put, this track is a trip that rips! Great acoustic bass and guitar support from Phillips and Marshall; great piano work by Higbie; soaring double-stops by Anger. The ultimate feel-good high!

At a few minutes under an hour (typical for early CDs), this album may, to some, seem too short. But I measure my albums by the quality of their content, and the content here is all first class. Not to mention the fact that it (and its "Chiaroscuro" stablemate, listed elsewhere at Amazon as ASIN B00000AF3J) got me started on two decades' worth of subsequent Darol Anger albums of such eclecticism that he almost defies categorization. I'd call that an wise investment, not a profligate purchase!

Bob Zeidler

This is, according to the liner notes, the entire concert played on July 19th, 1984 at the Montreux Jazz Festival, in Montreux, Switzerland. Musicians are: Darol Anger, violins; Barbara Higbie, piano; Mike Marshall, guitar, mandolin; Todd Phillips, up-right bass; and Andy Narell, steel drums. 55 minutes running time, there are 10 tracks in all, not 8 as listed here. As the samples demonstrate, this is not 'new age' but acoustic-based music, with a jazz/classical/contemporary sensibility (no synthesizers are used).

This is one of the best albums Windham Hill ever produced. It features Barbara Higbie, Darol Anger, Andy Narell, Mike Marshall and Todd Phillips playing in a live performance that is pure magic. A friend of mine described it as "happy music" because it is impossible to listen to it without smiling.

If this disc has done anything, it's to make me feel so sad that these folks didn't pursue more music like this. When Higbie, Marshall and Anger got back together to form Montreux, they went in a direction that was much more smooth jazz than the contemplative chamber jazz thing that they've got going on here. This is, without a doubt, one of my favorite albums, and I can only hope that one day, EMI will get their poop together and re-issue this. It's brilliant, first track to last.

When you hear that word you may think of something profound. What is profound about this album is it's ease of natural beauty and wonder. Impeccable note selection from all. My friend above said it's balance could be better. I submit he may have his VTA set too high. It's flawless around here. You are so unaware that microphones are used or that this is a recording. And you can't resist the music. Impossible if your a living, breathing organizism with a conscious nervous system no matter what your taste in music may be.

There are a couple of vinyl copies available here and several more on CD. Try and get one of each if you have a TT. I'm buyin a CD so I can make some Christmas presents for musically inclined friends. Here's hoping it is just as natural sounding as on LP.

I'm not really sure how to do an album review, so I'll just start by saying I love this album. My old cassette copy wore out and I feared I would be unable to get another copy since it is out-of-print. Fortunately, I found a copy on Amazon, unfortunately, it appears that it was never released on CD. So I'm stuck with cassette again.

This is a live album of a group that later called themselves "Montreaux" which later released studio albums with vocals that I didn't much care for. This album is a strictly instrumental affair which I would describe mainly as piano jazz with other instruments.

I find it ironic that, outside of the piano, the instruments used are more likely to be found in folk or bluegrass music than in jazz: violin, acoustic guitar, mandolin. The really unusual choice of instrument here is steel drums. I usually associate steel drums with noisy Caribbean street music, not mellow jazz. But it works surprisingly well in this context. I just recently noticed that there is no drumkit used on this album, I guess I didn't miss it.

The songs often follow the jazz tradition of each member taking turns to do a solo. But unlike typical jazz groups I've heard, the transitions between solos are so seamless that I never even noticed until recently that they were actually taking turns doing solos. The melodies just seem to drift from one instrument to the next.

As you may have guessed, I often play this album as background music. I enjoy the soothing ambience of the album so much that I just play it on repeat for hours on end and never seem to get sick of it. Yet the music is interesting enough to stand up to more attentive listening.

The only reason I docked the rating by one star is that I wish the album had a little more warmth. The tone is very clear but somewhat bright. But then again, what do you expect from an album with steel drums?