Customer Reviews

Oceana

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

 

 

What would happen if you combined Richard Leo Johnson, Leo Kotke, and Leo Brouwer (OK, I'm just thinking up all the guitarists I know who have Leo in their name), threw in a dollop of Pat Metheny, a whiff of Noel Akchote, a soupcon of Eugene Chadbourne, a hint of Kurt Rosenwinkel, a smidgen of John Schott, traces of Egberto Gismonti, and enough Nels Cline and Dave Fiuczynski to rock the house to its foundations?

You'd have Ben Monder.

What if he made a guitar record unlike any other?

It'd sure be virtuoso.

But would it be enjoyable, even listenable?

Maybe to guitar freaks. And probably to few others.

That, to me, is what we've got here with Oceana. It pains me to say this because in other settings, e.g., the Maria Schneider Orchestra, Guillermo Klein's ensemble, Donny McCaslin's Soar and Seen From Above, Josh Roseman's Treats for the Nightwalker, Chris Dahlgren's Slow Commotion, Marc Johnson's Right Brain Patrol, and a handful of Patrick Zimmerli dates, he's both acquitted himself admirably and more than once been a huge factor in the success of the outing.

The man has chops out the wazoo. And often interesting concepts.

However. For me, on this outing, things seldom transcend the technically brilliant. It all seems a little bloodless. It could be that I've just not connected with the vibe. But I don't think so.

That said, I'm not surprised at the positive responses from other reviewers, and I certainly wish Ben Monder every success. He's a prodigally talented man, and in the tough world of instrumental jazz certainly among the very top echelon of players. And don't get me wrong; this disc is worth hearing if only for its dazzling playing.

Even though Oceana leaves me just a little bit cold, I'm going to get my hands on everything of his that I can, that's how good and interesting he is as a player.

****1/2

This music ranks near the top of emotional experiences I have had with instrumental music (Bleckmann doesn't sing words, using his voice like an instrument), including encounters that I associate with those who most of us consider "the greats": Beethoven, Coltrane, and so on. The beautiful thing about it is that I don't find Monder relying on anyone else's template for emotionality: he makes his own mold, making for a listening experience that varies each time I listen to "Oceana." One day I listen to it and experience a strange serenity that I can't put my finger on. The next day I put it on and feel a fear that I can't explain and that I wasn't expecting. Tomorrow it could be another ephemeral emotion: inexplicably unbounded joy, perhaps. The big thing is that I can hardly ever explain my reaction adequately. My analogy is to walking into a huge cathedral of ornate, baroque design. One day it could overwhelm me and another it could fill me with the peace of the universe. The point is that it is huge and composed of so many parts that I can't begin to impart its impression upon me in an easy way.

To show what I mean by looking at the first three songs: "Still Motion" is a solo piece where Monder highlights his almost classical technique by ranging chromatically and serially over the fretboard. Despite the mathematics on display in his composition, it is regardless of amazing beauty. So far, so good. Then Theo Blackmann does some multi-part harmony with himself on "Light," bringing to mind monastic chants (the cathedral analogy works great here). Everything then bursts forth with "Oceana." After the delicate proportions of Bleckmann's short vocal interlude, "Oceana" fragments the album off into any possible emotion that the listener might feel at the moment. With the instrumental trio in motion here, it is as if Monder's nimble picking of his fractal chords creates synergistic mathematical possibilities allowing us to feel it in a googleplex of ways. After a few fruitful detours, the song starts to be more comprehensible near the middle, where Monder takes the chord up (some jarring broken chord) step by step. At least you can follow what he is doing at this point. Then the kicker comes: as if to say that we shouldn't let this chromatic ascension make us think that things will be predictable, he takes the band into a new direction, a new chasm in the ocean floor, another nook of the cathedral that we had yet to see, redolent with exotic and somewhat forbidding jewels.

This piece is absolutely amazing. Buy it up before it, like his earlier recordings, goes out of print.

"Oceana" released in October of this year (2005) is one of the most beautiful albums by a jazz guitarist that I've heard. I'm a huge fan of Bill Frisell and Pat Metheny, so that's saying alot.

Ben is joined by some stellar musicians for this recording which are the following: Kermit Driscoll on bass (a member of Bill Frisell's late 80s/early 90s group), Ted Poor on drums, Theo Bleckmann on wordless vocals, and Skuli Sverrisson on bass (songs 7 and 8). These musicians are all amazing and each have contributed a great performance.

The music for this album speaks for itself, but let me just say that it's very complex and intricate like all of Ben Monder's albums are. This album picks up where 2000's "Excavation" left off, but to my ears it's been lifted into another sonic world. This world is more graceful and uplifting than "Excavation," but both albums have a certain darkness to them.

Ben's playing on here is all incredible as usual. He is particularly impressive on the solo guitar pieces as he is on pieces arranged for a quartet. I would also like to add that Theo Bleckmann's voice on this album is better than "Excavation," although that album had plenty of great vocal melodies from Theo. He sounds like he's matured alot in 5 years.

Song hightlights for me where "Rooms of Light," "Oceana," and "Echolalia." Absolutely jaw-dropping playing from one of most original jazz guitarists on the scene today. BUY THIS ALBUM NOW! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING ON?!?!

I also highly recommend his other three albums (which are hard to come across due to limited pressings of the albums):

Excavation (2000 Arabesque Recordings/2006 remastered on Sunny Side)
Dust (1997 Arabesque Recordings)
Flux (1995 Songlines Records)

Monder updates Metheny's introspectively, intimately intense work to hypnotically challenging effect--one of only a few who have continued to evolve the form past his glaring benchmark--along with providing his own complex contribution to the language for this mesmerizing, perhaps slightly over-ambitious, expansive jazz-guitar epic.

I think the album as a whole is kind of bland. I feel like only musicians would enjoy this album , which is a big con. Theres really not much melodic value. I would recommend Kurt Rosenwinkel, instead of Monder. Ive seen some Monder videos on Youtube, which are great performances, but this album is just blahhh (bad discriptor). I think Kurt put a bit more time into his albums and focus on being more melodical than technical. Monder is a great player, and a great soloist, but song writer? no thanks. Not my cup of tea i guess.

This is the first time that I have heard someone that can truely compose pleasing atonal music. Anyone can play a chromatic scale and say they are playing jazz 'laugh', but the key to pulling it off is having a true understanding of each note and knowing what interval to choose next.