Customer Reviews

Welcome to Life

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4 star:		(2)
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The first time I heard SOUTH I could not stop listening to it for 3 months. The same thing has happened since I picked up this "side." I feel that Dave Binney's take on "jazz music" is a strong indication of where it is headed. His conception is inspiring. WELCOME TO LIFE is the next step. Dave has amazing chops, beautiful tone and incredible time. His compositions are singable, yet completely intricate and ingeniously crafted. On "Welcome To Life" he uses the same band that is on SOUTH with the exception of Craig Taiborn sitting in the place of the amazing Uri Caine. Craig fills Uri's shoes and then some. Chris Potter's solo on "Frez" is totally amazing. Adam Roger's slide guitar solo on Lisliel could be my favorite part on the album! Scott Colley is featured on Enchantress. Brian Blade...enough said. A must have for any music lover's collection.

Once again, NY-based David Binney has collected some of the finest players in the jazz world on this stellar new album: Brian Blade on drums, Craig Taborn on keyboards, Scott Colley on bass, Adam Rogers on guitar, Chris Potter on tenor sax and Binney on alto sax. If you've liked his previous work--South, etc...--you're going to love this record. The songs, all composed by Binney, are amazing. They express a range of sounds and emotions from melodic to dissonant, from cerebral to whimsical. The music is truly exceptional and this group of musicians really brings it to life. This is new, this is different, this is not your traditional jazz music. It's fresh, honest, original, non-commercial. Bend your mind and ears--you won't be disappointed.

With bands as melodically approachable and harmonically and rhythmically sophisticated as David Binney's, one scarcely need think about the "death of jazz." Along with people like the Jazz Composers Collective (Ben Allison, Michael Blake, Frank Kimbrough, et. al.), The Claudia Quintet, Mephista, John Wolf Brennan, Brad Mehldau, The Bad Plus, Stefon Harris, and countless others too numerous to name, jazz is in exceedingly good hands.

What I think the newer generation of hip, savvy jazz purveyors has done is found a way to map the basic jazz improvisatory aesthetic onto a variety of new and traditional musics--that is, basically do what jazz has always done: incorporate both authentic folk musics as well as progressive influences into its dizzying sphere of improvisational influence. It has stagnated precisely where it has failed in this integrative enterprise.

David Binney and his remarkable band are among the best at doing this. Each of these players (Craig Taborn, piano; Chris Potter, tenor sax; Adam Rogers, guitar; Scott Colley, bass; and Brian Blade, drums) is a band leader of significance in his own right. Together with leader Binney, they form a kind of Young Turk super group.

Really, this is where some of the most exciting music today is happening. Freed from the empty posturing, faux political agendas, and media pandering that plague various popular and alt music subgenres, first-order improvisational jazz, which is what we have here, enables the widest possible audience embrace.

Dig.

The subtle diversity of this record is very much worth listening to: it keeps grabbing your attention, making you come back for more. Unfortunately it seems to be lacking some swing, partly due to the sometimes annoyingly stiff drumming by Brian Blade. Binney himself is a very impressive saxophonist with a great expressive range, while his compositons are very elegant and refined, though this may also be the cause of the rather stiff drumming parts. Potter is at his usual peak, Taborn is great. In all a very fine record, but it could do with some extra fire, bringing it somewhere beyond sheer elegance. The short spell of chaos in 'Ici' is of a rather predictable nature. Also some compositions do rely a little too much on the repetition of themes. So...do I even like this record? Yes, I do, remarkably, but it could be much better still.

Before you even open the CD, you'll see David Binney gathers a group of well-regarding musicians for this CD -- Chris Potter, Craig Taborn, Adam Rogers, Scott Colley, and Brian Blade. The music inside doesn't disappoint. The songs are all modern jazz, in the sense that the compositions are important. Binney's compositional style has become popular with other jazz musicians, and this CD is an indication why. The songs simply find a way to be catchy and interesting without being off-putting. "Soldifolier" and "Welcome To Life" are midtempo, "Lisliel" is a ballad, and "Frez" is a long funky song. "Frez" has a great example of Chris Potter's playing on this CD. Whenever the tenor sax starts a solo, the song gets better. If you compare this CD to "Lan Xang" you can tell the difference - Binney and Colley are on both CD's but Potter is a big step up (in fairness to McCaslin, his playing is much much improved from 1998). "Our Time Together" is another ballad, "Sintra" is midtempo, "Enchantress" a melodious ballad, "Ici" is nearly raucous, and "California" closes it out gently. Adam Rogers' guitar doesn't stick out very strongly (except for his solos), but the stuff that rises in the mix is good. I rate Brian Blade's drumming on this CD as among his best. Craig Taborn is also top-notch. This is a very good CD, recommended.

This album has it all. Great writing, rhythmic drive, burning virtuosity. I bought it after the essential South and love it even more. I have been frustrated that my trips to NY have not coincided with David Binney's performances. To hear Binney's rich structures-both written and improvised, and his interplay with the great Chris Potter is something no jazz fan should miss.