Mark Turner [Ballad Session]
As the title suggests, this is a gentle session of ballads, but even though it's tuneful, it's certainly not 'easy listening', this is an intense session, Mark Turner showing off his more romantic introspective side.
It's mainly a mix of quartets and quintets, Guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel adds to this disc immensely, he appears on most of the album, while Pianist Kevin Hays appears on half the tracks, and there's one trio track without either, a nice mix/combination of musicians.
The booklet is fantastic, lovely shots front and back by Richard Lee, and then a load of mesmerising black & white inner shots by Jimmy Katz, nicely lit and at oblique angles, verrry nice, check out his Website, it has a section called portraits, and has many black & white galleries of Jazz musicians, the list of musicians on the front cover is my own inspiration, rub on transfers, it helps me to remember who's playing on the session, plus it adds to to the overall artistic effect.
This time around i was impressed with track 6, All Or Nothing At All, the opening is great, nice chords by Rosenwinkel, and great cymbal/drum combination work by brian Blade, before Turner states the irresistible theme, and uses the upper registers of the Sax throughout the track, a special mention should be made of Drummer Brian Blade, he is on revelatory form on this track, i can hear brushwork, and his use of cymbals is so satisfying.
I get the strong feeling Mark Turner was inspired by John Coltrane's version, you can hear Mark Turner playing this track on YouTube.
