Customer Reviews

Surrender to the Air

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This album is very difficult to listen to at first and comes off as complete cacophony or a bunch of people competing for first place. But then it suddenly hits you as just a completely amazing work of art up there with Miles Davis's Bitches Brew. All the musicians are truly impressive they know what to play when needed and know when to just be quiet. The drums, bass, and piano stick out the most on this album for me. John Medeski's piano solo is mind boggling. How these people are able to get this music in there heads in the first place and then out via instruments is beyond me.

I guess maybe I'm just some sort of peon. I loved phish, for years. I think Trey's solo debut in 2002 is incredible. I grock much of what Medeski does. I think Michael Ray's a genius, and consider myself fortunate to live in the same town he does so that I can hear him and his Cosmic Krewe often. I could go on and on about each of these musicians individually. But that's not what this album is about.

Well, I don't know WHAT it is about. I suppose if I wasn't such a peon musically, I would *get* this album, understand it and appreciate its genius or whatever. But that's beside the point, because I'm not above admitting when I haven't got a freakin' clue. BUT BEYOND THAT, even if I could appreciate what these individually great musicians were trying to do here in the collective, I doubt I could ever ENJOY it. It's almost painful at points. I don't enjoy this kind of pain. This kind of pain is only a waste of money.

oh well.

I, like many others here it seems, am a fan of Phish and have a pretty open mind when it comes to music. Still, this will never be listened to again by me. Is it jazz? Is it a jam? I'd say it's the sound of a bunch of great musicians all playing a different song at the same time. Honestly. Some parts are dead quite, others are obnoxiously loud, but all are just annoying. Listen before you buy, and if you're looking for something non-Phish with Trey in it, just get his "Shine" album, or even Oysterhead.

When I first heard the story of this CD (Trey got a bunch of the best musicisans he could find put them in a studio and started the tape) my intrest was peaked. The first time I listend to it, I could tell that these peple had never been in the same room together. After a few times thru it I realized, these people are genuses. Sometimes its hard to listen to it so freeform, other times its beutiful because its so freeform. My favorite thing about `Surrender` is all the moving parts and hearing the instant chemestry between this dream team.

Comparing this album to Bitches Brew is like comparing the ABB's Live at the Fillmore East to Cheap Trick Live at Budokan. This album is an utter disappointment to both myself and every other fan of jazz/improv. music I know. Like the 'peon' below me I have been an avid listener to free jazz and jam music for many years and I just don't get this album. If you want to hear some real "free jazz" do not buy this album. Go out and get the album that started it all: "Free jazz" by Ornette Coleman...

Is that even a word? It is now...and it can be applied to this album. I am a huge Phish fan as well as a fan of Trey's solo work. When I saw the artists on this CD, I thought how could it go wrong? And yet it did.

I'm not a music afficiando, but for the average listener and even jam band fan, this is an endless cacophony of mangled and irritating sounds. Stay away.

Trey and Phish paid their mortgage with easy-to-process jams, stop-on-a-dime changes and sophomoric pranks. This album, however, is a complete departure, i.e., not meant for mindless dancing or chummy sing alongs. This album covers some free jazz territory and it's not afraid to get sparse, moody & modal; it even has some funky fusion for the neanderthals in need of a recognizable beat. The album seems to travel in between Coltrane's Impulse years and MMW without blinking. There is a little bit of aren't-I-weird sound effects, and some of the pieces devolve into abject nonsense, but it all seems to fit. Many of the people who criticize this wonderful offering expect it to be something it NEVER attempts to be: easy. This ain't a toe-tapper, it's a mind bender, to be played on those haunted evenings when you're driving through the strange part of town. The song "Down" could have come from the brilliant Dave Holland Quintet, and it is as playful and infectious as anything from Medeski Martin and Wood. The song "Out" could have followed "Mademoiselle Mabry" from the complete "In a Silent Way" sessions. And yes, there are some rough patches that a lesser artist could not have afforded to produce...but you can chalk that up to Trey's celebrity. He's earned his Revolution #9.

Everyone knows that the boys from Phish are very literate musicians. Their range, for a jam band, was staggering. This album proves what I always thought about Trey: the only thing bigger than his insanely vast musical vocabulary is his respect for dissonance and his penchant for anarchy. Kudos to him for putting out an album that will reward both careful attention and pill-popping abandon.

I'm not going to say that if you don't enjoy this album that you don't have any musical taste, because you probably have more taste then those of us who did enjoy the album, but it definitly takes a certain mind set and a certain type of ear to be able to even start listening to this album, never mind to enjoy it. For those of you who bought it and didn't really like it, I'll tell you that I was in the same situation. When I first listened to it while talking to some friends online, I hated it. I thought "great 15 dollars worth of garbage." THIS CD IS NOT BACKROUND MUSIC! Take some time to really listen to it. This music is not suppose to be pleasant to the ear music, it's an insightful look into the world of avant garde territory, and an ingenious effort by Trey Anastasio and all parties involved, including: John Fishman, John Medeski (of the psychedlic jazz trio Medeski Martin and Wood), Kofi Burbridge, and Oteil Burbridge (notably of The Allman Brothers Band, Vida Blue, and The Aquarium Rescue Unit), are among notables brought in by Anastasio. Truly a piece of musical genious.

What was Trey thinking? This CD sounds like 10 very talented musicians all entered a studio ready to make a great jazz CD. Then for no apparent reason, they switched instruments and they all ended up with one which they had no idea how to play. The engineer pressed the record button, and all the musicians started blowing in the instruments they didn't know how to play. This CD is pitiful, it hurts to listen to it. Unless you're deaf or like music thats not so great, I wouldn't buy it.

This is exactly what Trey talks about in his "Tension and Release" interviews. This CD is like the tension-release-tension-release jams on live Chalkdusts. Only, instead of the end of a tune this CD is an undulating flow of energy throughout. The idea was not to pull off jazz standards but to communicate with each other musically. Trey once said in an interview "Sometimes, if you can get your ego out of the way the music will flow through you." What a great line-up. Oteil Burbridge from Aquarium Rescue Unit, Allman Brothers Band, and Vida Blue, Trey Anastasio from Phish, Trey Band, Vermont Jazz Allstars, Oysterhead, 8 Foot Flourescent Tubes, etc. Joh Fishman from Phish, Pork Tornado, John Medeski from MMW, members of Sun Ra's Arkestra. You've got to be open to this CD to enjoy it.