Customer Reviews

Stargazer

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

 

 

The follow-up recording to "In Our Lifetime" (a tribute to Booker Little), "Stargazer" is a tribute to saxophonist Wayne Shorter. I'm not familar enough with Wayne Shorter's solo work (previously he was with the great Miles Davis Quintet) to gauge how the Douglas-penned compositions touch on Shorter's compositional and performance styles. I do know that Douglas' compositions here are as strong as any of his other works and he has assembled a great band to perform them. Highly recommended.

Dave Douglas - trumpet, Chris Speed - tenor sax & clarinet, Josh Roseman - trombone, Uri Caine - piano, James Genus - bass, Joey Baron - drums.

Stargazer, recorded in 1997, features the same band employed in Douglas's Booker Little tribute recording, In Our Lifetime (Douglas on trumpet, Chris Speed on tenor sax and clarinet, Joshua Roseman on trombone, Uri Caine on piano, James Genus on bass, and Joey Baron on drums), this time around playing "music by and for Wayne Shorter." As with the earlier recording, but even more so this time, I found Stargazer to be quite tedious. Oncer again, there were some interesting moments, but the most part, the performances were overly earnest and overly busy. Drummer Baron especially overplays his part this time around, just overdoing it and not letting the music breathe. I think I could maybe have enjoyed this CD had a different, more subtle drummer been employed and I have heard Baron do much better on many other recordings -- not sure what the problem was on this outing), but in the end, this recording simply wore out my patience.

This is another great Dave Douglas album. Three of the songs Four Sleepers, Diana, and Pug Nose were written buy Wayne Shorter and the rest by Dave Douglas. This album is a tribute to Wayne Shorter, and his compositional spirit. I'm sure he is pleased to have such a fine set of tunes composed for him and dedicated to him. The playing is top notch. I love Joey Baron provides the steady beat and everyone has plenty of solo time. Standouts for me on this album included Dave Douglas (of course) and also Joshua Roseman, trombone who talks an awesome solo on Gold Fish. This album is very recommended to all Dave Douglas fans and other general jazz fans!

This is THE dave douglas recording. On this great disc Dave shows his enormous skills on trumpet and as a composer. For me personaly as a big Douglas fan it's one of his most exciting recordings. THE recording of dave you must have from his sextet because his other groups are even good but it's quite different. What makes this recording so special? the exciting and perfectionated sound of the group, dave's personal trumpet sound and skills, the great original compositions, etc.... i could go on for long but what really makes it so special is that feeling you get when hearing the disk play and that feeling will increase the more you play the disc. how more you'll play it how more you'll love it and become a Douglas fan.

Douglas' sextet pays tribute to wayne shoter with three shorter tunes and Douglas originals. NOt quite on the level of In Our Lifetime, but if you like Douglas you will want this one (and all of his others)!

The obvious next choice when Soul on Soul does not disappoint. Liking a lot of the records of Wayne Shorter, to whose music Stargazer is an approach, I found Dave Douglas' interpretations not as stringent as on his Soul on Soul, because very little actually reminded of Wayne Shorter's music. On the other side Soul on Soul is all Mary Lou Williams. It is dawning on me why Dave Douglas is such a special musician. Without being able to explain this sentence: he adds an additional dimension to music, just like John Coltrane with A Love Supreme. You can't hear enough of Douglas' music.