Customer Reviews

Summit Meeting

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

 

 

If you like energetic post-bop exemplified by tight ensemble work with great harmony and a liberal number of really good solos, then this is for you.

There is only one cut taken at a ballad tempo but there is enough variety in the faster selections that there is no monotonous repetition. Nicholas Payton, appearing on four of the nine cuts, is the perfect complement to Eric Alexander's fine sax work.

My taste in jazz generally runs to the standards, ballads and medium tempo selections but this cd provides a very tasteful ingredient to mix in a shuffle of cds for some good jazz listening.

I have to dispute one of the previous reviewers who gives this only 3 stars. His criteria seems to be that Nicholas Payton did not get enough solo space. I disagree. Nicholas plays on 4 of the CD's 9 numbers, and solos on each of the 4. After all, he is only a guest soloist.
If the name "Summit Meeting" bothers him, he should remember that the album title came from the marketing people of the recording company, and not from Eric.
The focus of this fine recording is Eric's long time quartet consisting of his mentor, Harold Mabern, piano; John Webber, bass; and the great drummer Joe Farnsworth. This is the true "Summit Meeting."
By those criterea, this is as fine a quartet recording that Eric has done. I especially like the reading of "A House Is Not a Home", a tune you don't often here. It is rendered here in a wonderful 3/4 time reading. Also listen to "This Girl's In Love With You." I don't often like these latter day renderings of rock/sould classics, but I like this jazzy version. Enjoy!

So you're a hot mainstream tenor player, you land Nicholas Payton as a special guest on your next album, you write a nifty 1960s-style 24-bar blues called "Summit Meeting" (cf. a certain trumpeter's 24-bar blues, "The Sidewinder")....and what could go wrong? Well, if you're Eric Alexander you hog the solo space & completely unbalance the performance: some "summit meeting" when the trumpeter has to wait almost 4 minutes to take his solo (which is half the length of Alexander's). More or less the same thing happens on "There But For the Grace Of...."--Payton gets one chorus, in fact--& it's only on the two remaining quintet tracks that the horn players actually strike some sparks. Alexander is a fine player whose playing is unfailingly handsome & fluent--qualities which are to my ear both admirable & yet a bit insufficient to hold my interest throughout an album. This is a rather slick & high-gloss album, & at its worst (a gaudy & tasteless Latinized "Naima" which even includes a drum solo) it can seem terribly vapid. On the other hand, the pair of Bacharach tunes are actually dispatched pretty nicely, & "Andre's Turn" is a good tune.