Customer Reviews

Revisite

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

 

 

Drum'n'bass and Miles Davis in the same room. I usually listen electronic music and bits of jazz and this CD is a perfect amalgamation of rock, cool jazz and electronica. It has become one of may favourite soundtracks while I drive through the city where I live. It's a modern, eclectic, nostalgic and inspiring album.

At first I thought this wasn't bad but it really didn't get my attention. I had heard Truffaz's Mask on satellite radio and it really got my attention. Miles Davis-like in an unusual sort of way. After doing some research on Truffaz I see why.

So, I looked around at record exchanges and found Revisite and Walk of the Giant Turtle for roughly 6.00 each for a real look at this guy. Hey, for 6.00 how bad could it be? I was/am pleasantly surprised at the talent and style of this artist and this CD. Smooth and yet sharp in expression.

He's not just playing scales. There is some real improvisation going on here and yet there are strong melodies and beats to carry the tunes through to the end. This is really a nice blend of electronic and jazz with some hip hop beats on some of the selections. This ain't smooth jazz. But it is really smooth.

Still looking for The Mask. Not much chance of finding it though.

This is another EXTREMELY COOL album I first heard on KCRW's Chocolate City. It's basically an 'ambient-acid-jazz-house' record that has super-pristine virtuoso trumpet playing on it, courtesy of Erik Truffaz who sounds like a mixture of Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard. He's heard soloing over the fancy, re-mixed, layered, transparent ambient landscapes, sounds that are deep and spacy and partly electronic but 100% ORGANIC in texture; they don't sound cheesy and fake, they stay in your head and twist your consciousness around gently, they don't drop out into some spare post-'70s zone like most done-to-death cliched jazz recordings.

Jazz has has always short-changed sound, aural texture and production in favor of instrumental and interpretational prowess. There are very few brilliantly 'produced' jazz records in the sense that "Boston," "Pink Floyd," or "The ORb" are well-produced. Here, the great sound of a superior 'HOUSE' record merges with soulful soloing that looks forward to the future of jazz as a popular force. I think the future of jazz is toward a new fusion with the more 'ambient electronic' soundscapes pioneered by the 'acid jazz' experminters in the '90s. While having to sample most of their stuff, those guys showed where the hip direction is. Ever restless guitar genius John McLaughlin stated this many years ago and has experimented in that direction in his last two "Heart of Things" records. Truffaz and his re-mixers are already there on "Revisite" although in not quite as progressive or difficult a way as Mclaughlin was attempting. Also, anyone who likes this disc should also check out "Pariah's Pariah" by Gary Thomas.

Hey - in your Amazon advert, you describe Erik Truffaz as a saxophonist... pretty embarrassing, Amazonians! As for the album, it's very atmospheric and a bit too murky and remote. I say this because his un-remixed stuff is tremendous, especially the last album, (available only as an import in the US) called Bending New Corners. Some of 'Corners' and some of the album before that, The Dawn, were combined to make The Mask. Bending New Corners, though is a consistent and remarkable work, and should have been issued in the States. Truffaz is always compared with Miles, but he's not at all the same. Miles was toweringly great enough to create an approach to trumpet playing and musical organisation that should accomodate thousands of players without thinking they are 'Miles imitators.' Truffaz has a lot of Chet Baker in him as well - he's a soft player, more than Miles, and lyrical like Chet, but also abstract (like Miles) and further extends the tonal vocabulary of the trumpet beyond either of those influences. He also writes memorable pieces, things that hang together and stick in your mind. And he has a totally tight and sympathetic group that has been together for a while now and has real rapport. All that, and it's still stimulating music, not sonic wallpaper. If you haven't got any, get The Mask or, even better, Bending New Corners and then The Dawn. If you have them, then check out Revisité.

...the first time i listened to this i thought it was a joke!
i sampled thru this so fast and dismissed it so quickly, that if not for that police car behind mine on the highway, this would've hit the asphalt with a quickness!
surely somebody at blue-note was carrying a grudge against his superiors when he recommended putting this out to be consumed by the money-spending public! blue-note? and electro-down-tempo-chilled-out-neo-garbage! - never!

but then i sat back and listened to it...

i dont know how to categorize this for real, it really defies what i know to be jazz, electronica, acid and downtempo...hell, one song even has some freestyle hip-hop verses!
it is so odd! but i like it! the best references i can relate this to are tosca's suzuki mixed with maybe some sun ra/pharoah sanders type of thing!
i love this! i cant think of any event in which this might get played, other than just me sittin down to relax and gather my thoughts to...but that's somethin i do alot of!

the album is dope check it out. but, this album is a comp. of re-mix tracks that did not need to be made. the orginal songs are dope as is. If you have not heared truffaz stuff yet check out "The Mask" you will enjoy.