Customer Reviews

Re-Imagination

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

 

 

I heard "Prairie Village" on the radio, and loved it, but I didn't love it so much when I bought the CD and heard Remember When, Back Home, and South Bixel, which all seem to have very similar tempos, rhythms and feels. However, that being said, I don't think I've ever heard someone so young so good. He has a very modern sound in his ideas, voicings, and harmonies, yet there is definitely Oscar Peterson in him (he pays tribute to the giant in Place St. Henri). I also really enjoy the mix of electronic elements on this album. It makes me want to check out some more of DJ Logic's material. I loved his "standard" jazz, yet he sounds very much in his element with these more experimental, fusion tunes. So I have to say, here's this guy who's younger most of us, who seems to have much of jazz piano history under his fingers, and his biggest criticism seems to be that he's too technical, not enough soul. First of all, I'd LOVE for my biggest criticism to be that I'm too fast. Secondly, I think the slow tracks on this disc are very touching and beautiful. I don't want to be the type of person who says "Yeah, he's a great PRODIGY"; "He has so much POTENTIAL"; "He'll be one of the greats SOMEDAY." Eldar, you're already there.

This is probably Eldar's most impressive and innovative album to date, and maybe his best for the simple fact that he had made only two major releases prior to this and, talented as he was, there was little indication that he would go down such a new road and shine at electronic jazz to this degree.

Re-Imagination (Grammy-nominated, 2007, for Best Contemporary Jazz Album) proves that you can't be too sure what Eldar will do next. If you think he's "just another piano prodigy," think again, because this album will likely change your mind. The first piece, I Remember When, is one of Eldar's finest compositions and one of his most innovative as well. He juxtaposes a static vinyl sound with current recording sonics to evoke a feeling of past and present. The song is something of a hit, as Eldar performed it on Jimmy Kimmel Live! It's infectious and charged with Eldar's boundless energy. From there, he goes on some incredible sonic adventures, employing his usual crew as well as DJ Logic on the first and last sections of the album and covering Oscar Peterson's Place St Henri along the way as well as the solo Tears (another Eldar original, I believe). By the end, it's hard not to have become reacquainted with Eldar. He forces you to re-imagine him.

This is a huge leap in the career of this extremely talented artist. For me, certainly, it came, like track 4 says, from "Out of Nowhere," but it's here to stay.

I first saw this artist on a late night talk show and rarely do I "sit up and take notice" of such artists but this one caught my ear immediately. the CD was NOT a disappointment...it features beautiful arrangements and a nice selection of material. Everytime my CD player "hits" this CD....I sit up and take notice...it is just a wonderful!!! Nice to see the tradition of fine jazz continues.

Eldar's imagination is so intricate and defined.
Notes pour out of him.. with great ease...he's a genius!

Living in KC myself i cannot believe I have not heard of eldar until just recently. Im not a true jazz or contemporary jazz fanatic but this album shows incredible potential. Granted the ballads are generic but this guy has genuine intentions in his music and hopefully he will grow into what he has the potential to be. Overall a good cd with stints of greatness.

Having the mastery of exceptional keyboard speed is fine in and of itself. Eldar has this in spades. But without a sense of lyricism and rhythm creativity, this talent anomaly can wear thin quickly. Eldar's talent will not wear thin anytime in the next several decades. What a fresh star I look forward to enjoying for a long time. As good as the percussion work is by Ali Jackson, there are a couple of selections where it is a bit heavy-handed and consequently a bit distracting from Eldar's amazing presentation. Small criticism however. This CD is a joy!

Just caught a stellar live performance by Eldar in Long Beach, CA at the 'Backstage at Vault 350' Venue. What a refreshing new contribution to straight-ahead jazz! He's genuine. He's real. And he's so, so naturally talented. Not just trained, but talented! He feels what he plays. Something that I've been missing in much of the newer talent. I'm very impressed with Eldar and the young men that accompany him on bass and drums, and will purchase several copies of this CD as gifts for my true jazz friends.

So here it is, child-prodigy Eldar's latest release. Eldar has been criticized by many in the past for his "robotic" sound on the piano because his almost unimaginable technique on the piano enticed him, noted in his first release, to play some songs at really fast tempos that very few could play as cleanly. Though this is true and his technique seemed flawless, many found flaw in his playing, saying that his approach was the direct opposite of the Miles Davis-like, "less is more" type playing. Now, two albums later, how does the new Eldar stack up?
Ultimately, I wasn't too impressed with his work, and would rather listen to a blindingly fast "Sweet Georgia Brown" to marvel at his speeds than listen to any of the tracks on this record. While they may not all be bad, I can't praise any one of them very much. The main reason behind this lack of praise to them is the fact that there seem to be three types of songs on this record, and all of the songs that fall under each type could almost be baked into a single pie together.
The first type is the one denoted by the very first track. Maybe this is Eldar's re-imagination of the keyboard, adding electronic noises (reminded me of some of the effect that Kenny Werner put in his latest album, though overused, I think, in this one) and using names like DJ Logic to turn the tables on a couple tracks. Okay, so it was a good effort, but there were still many flaws. The first thing that came through my mind when listening to the first track was, 'Wow, this sounds a lot like the kind of stuff that Lyle Mays and Pat Metheny write together, though the role of great technique is on the piano player and the role of a more lyrical approach comes from the guitar in this CD'. I do like a lot of that music, but there was something about this that was different, and not in a good way. There were many times that I felt ideas were starting to get good, and then we were thrown in another direction that ended up being not so good... and this happened on all of the tracks that sounded like this. There was a lot of energy coming from Ali Jackson on the drums that helped keep interest, but with lackluster solos and strange mood changes within the songs, I ended up being turned off by this type of song. And I repeat, it happened with them all, especially because they sounded quite alike. There's a distinct pop influence in them all, like in Mays' work, and Eldar, to me, puts too much pop in it. Interest was lost midway through the tracks.
The second type of song is the ballad-esque type. All in all, these tracks bore me to tears. I usually lost interest in the head. "Out of Nowhere" as a ballad is a good idea, but it was absolutely flat from beginning to end. His attempt at being lyrical rather than technical doesn't seem to be working out very well when there it's all boredom and no energy to his lyricism. It's like he's trying really hard to hold back his fingers, so there's a sort of "fakeness" in the space that he leaves. Many of these songs sound like they belong in a movie soundtrack simply because there are a couple highlights and then there's a lot of filler where the actors are supposed to be focused on in the movie rather than the music. It's like listening to the full Attack of the Clones orchestration by John Williams that spans through every single scene in the movie, except the really great parts are just not here in Eldar's recording. Another comparison would be to Christmas CDs like the A Winter's Solstice collection. It's pretty, but aside from a few moments, it's background. Both works compared to know to work it a lot better because this method is deliberate, where in Eldar's works it isn't.
Finally, there's the return to the type of thing that he did in his first CD with really fast playing over standards. This I enjoyed quite a bit more than the other types. Eldar's playing over the Oscar Peterson tune was a lot more true, I felt, and the ideas were more coherent and intuitive. This is the kind of work that I like hearing, and though I'm that he's being taught to add the lyricism, I wish that he wouldn't record such songs until he learns to use it wisely. Otherwise, this type is just fine if someone forces his into the studio.
In the end it turned out to just be an uninteresting piece of work. Eldar's use of DJ Logic and the electronics didn't add much to the songs, the repetitive nature of his songs made me wish that he cut the number of tracks in half, and the lyrical approach that he's attempting to do just isn't working out. I can see a lot of aspiring, young pianists looking up to Eldar now and in the future and all of the people Eldar's age and older just scoffing at him because either he's being robotic or because he can't be as original as other players. Technique like that is to be marveled at, but because he has excellent technique does not mean that he is skilled in other areas of playing. I look forward to hearing his other attempts, but time will tell whether or not I listen more than twice to any of those recordings.

http://akindofred.blogspot.com

It's OK, but, not what I expected. I don't hear of him on the radio or TV. What happened?

There is certainly no disputing this young man's virtuosity. Sadly, this recording is more or less the same song rehashed over and over. It's a bit remarkable that someone with this amount of talent brings so little to the table regarding compositional depth. It's really just too much "happy face", and almost Teschian in nature. This kid should take a page from the likes of Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Brad Mehldau or even Hiromi. Hopefully he'll grow into a relevant artistic place commensurate with all that talent...