MARK EGAN - ABOUT NOW
Contemporary
jazz bassist and composer Mark Egan has released his seventh recording as a
leader on Wavetone Records in a super trio setting featuring master drummer
Danny Gottlieb and brilliant keyboardist Mitch Forman. Mark
Egan is considered to be one of the most respected and in-demand electric
bassists on the music scene today. His unique fretless bass sound and style is
both distinctive and versatile and his musical contributions incomparable. With
three platinum & three gold albums to his credit, Mark has recorded with
the likes of the Pat Metheny Group, Sting, Arcadia, Roger Daltry and Joan Osborne;
performed with the Gil Evans Orchestra, Marianne Faithful, David Sanborn, John
McGlaughlin and Sophie B. Hawkins. Includes: Sailing, Slinky
See, About Now, Cabarete, Graceful
Branch, McKenzie Portage, Little Pagoda,
Tea In Tiananmen Square, and Puerto
Plata.
With his
exceptional chord changes, Hank Mobley is widely recognized as one of the great
composers of originals in the hard-bop era. This compilation covers Mobley's
'Golden Age', the albums he recorded for Blue Note Records between 1955 and
1961. The five disc set includes 10 full albums which the great man released
during the finest era for Jazz music that the world has ever witnessed.
Includes 43 tracks in all, including the following songs: Love For Sale, Just
Coolin’, Touch And Go, Double Whammy, Mobley Mania, My Sin, Reunion, Funk In
Deep Freeze, Fit For A Hanker, Bag's Groove, and Double Exposure.
JACKIE MCLEAN - 4, 5 AND 6
In 1956 Jackie
McLean was only beginning to assert himself as a true individualist on the alto
saxophone, exploring the lime-flavored microtones of his instrument that
purists or the misinformed perceived as being off-key or out of tune. 4, 5 and
6 presents McLean's quartet on half the date, and tunes with an expanded
quintet, and one sextet track -- thus the title. Mal Waldron, himself an
unconventional pianist willing to explore different sizings and shadings of
progressive jazz, is a wonderful complement for McLean's notions, with bassist
Doug Watkins and drummer Art Taylor the impervious team everyone wanted for his
rhythm section at the time. The quartet versions of "Sentimental Journey,"
"Why Was I Born?," and "When I Fall in Love" range from
totally bluesy, to hard bop ribald, to pensive and hopeful, respectively. These
are three great examples of McLean attempting to make the tunes his own, adding
a flattened, self-effaced, almost grainy-faced texture to the music without
concern for the perfectness of the melody. Donald Byrd joins the fray on his
easygoing bopper "Contour," where complex is made simple and
enjoyable, while Hank Mobley puts his tenor sax to the test on the lone and lengthy
sextet track, a rousing version of Charlie Parker's risk-laden
"Confirmation." It's Waldron's haunting ballad
"Abstraction," with Byrd and McLean's quick replies, faint and dour,
that somewhat illuminates the darker side. As a stand-alone recording, 4, 5 and
6 does not break barriers, but does foreshadow the future of McLean as an
innovative musician in an all-too-purist mainstream jazz world. ~ Michael G.
Nastos
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