Customer Reviews

Vietnam: The Aftermath

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

 

 

Vietnam: The Aftermath is one the finest jazz recordings ever made. Bang's mix of Asian motifs with jazz is simply inspired. This CD soulful, touching, swinging and really just plain beautiful. I can't recommend this CD highly enough. This record is a classic! I know I'll be listening to this CD for the rest of my life.

This new CD is sure to earn Billy Bang rave reviews from the critics as well as devoted fans like myself. This is simply Bang at his very best, with his intense, bouncing style given free range with the full-bodied support of top-flight musicians, including John Hicks, Michael Carvin, Frank Lowe, Curtis Lundy, Ted Daniels, and special guest Sonny Fortune. It is also very timely. It is at once a solemn introspection into the horrors of war and a celebration of the ability of the human spirit to overcome those horrors by facing up to them and choosing to use the experience to create something as wonderful and life-affirming as great music. And this music is so wonderful that it has the power to lift the human spirit even while it compels the listener to contemplate the absurdity of war as a means of resolving conflicts. Asian harmonics infiltrate the more familiar Jazz and Soul riffs, like the Vietcong advancing along the Ho Chi Minh Trail toward Saigon. But this juxtapositioning of Asian and American musical aesthetics is not about who won or lost the war; it signifies instead the interconnectedness of humanity, even while locked in mortal battle. Every human being who was injured or killed lost something or everything and gained nothing. This is a musical portrait of war from the vantage-point of those who fought on the ground and survived to experience the aftermath. And for so many American veterans like Billy Bang, the aftermath was plagued by psychological and physical damage, compounded by unemployment, drug addictions and public scorn for having fought an ignoble war. This is perhaps Billy Bang's personal guide on how to survive the war and its aftermath. Like the Blues, the music and musical performances captured here invoke pain and joy at the same time. The focus on death and destruction forges a new appreciation for and commitment to life and creativity. If only the powers-that-be on both sides of our present-day global conflicts could learn to appreciate Billy Bang, as opposed the bang of bombs dropping and planes crashing into skyscrapers..... Let this be the motto of the new millenium: Make Music, Not War!

"Vietnam: The Aftermath" is exceptional from all musical angles. Billy Bang has managed to capture the essence of great modern Jazz with added texture provided by vivid Asian themes and motifs. The beauty of this music lies in the integration of the two cultures. Billy Bang does an exceptional job of melding the Asian themes with the swinging tradition of great modern Jazz. If you like your music with an edge, this CD will blow you away. Unlike anything else I have ever heard, this music is a breath of fresh air. It is beautiful, open & free and it swings. This is the best Jazz Violin I have ever heard. Congratulations Billy Bang. This recording is a gem. Check it out!

I first saw Billy Bang perform with the Sun Ra Arkestra at the Tree Cafe in Portland, Maine in the late 1980s and was blown away by his intense and joyous performance. It was obvious that Mr. Ra enjoyed Billy's playing and afforded him many opportunities to lead the band. By closing, the band enticed the entire audience to form a conga line to a Cab Calloway standard, with the musicians playing in the line as the bartender screamed for last call.

A decade later, I had the privilege of listening to Billy Bang and his band perform the music on this CD at the Waterville Opera House in Waterville, Maine before maybe 200 people in a very informal and friendly setting. Mr. Bang is a supremely likable, honest, serious and often humorous person and his personality is fused to his music. His fellow musicians are as well. After hearing the performance of these pieces, everyone in the small, aging theatre knew they had experienced something unique and valuable and everyone went into the humid July evening with a smile on their face.

If more musicians in the jazz idiom played with the depth, lyricism and humanity of Billy Bang, jazz would be a much more popular form of contemporary American music.

Thank you, sir.

I very much enjoyed this album. I'm a VV myself and the music spoke to me experientially. And maybe more important it was good jazz!

This is an earlier CD, worth listening to if you want to see how Billy Bang got to the place where he could record Reflections. And a good CD in itself, worth listening to if you are a musician wanting to break out of the Jazz Standards rut.

The concept of this album intrigued me--a Viet Nam vet writing a jazz violin work of his impressions. Unfortunately, the execution did not live up to the concept. Billy Bang's composition is sadly cliched and repetitive, and his playing is less than competent. His intonation is so bad that it was painful to hear. I sold the CD a few weeks after buying it.