Mark Turner [Ballad Session]
Ah Jazz!, how empty music would sound if there wasn't Jazz in it?, it's not just another genre, rather Jazz shows the extreme essence of what music can be... 'improvisation', an off the cuff inventing the music as you go, not merely plucking a guitar or tinkling a piano and see where it goes, but actually listening to others while you play, and responding, call and response, lead and follow, play and echo, the greatest musicians can make music up on the go, i'm so glad i have this in my life, it teaches me so many things about so many other sorts of music, and it's good to hear this album by Mark Turner again, it's a rather mellow disc, concentrating on slower numbers, this appeared in my Blog in its very first month [17th January 2010].
Mark Turner is American, he's now 46, and he recorded this disc in 1999, the photography throughout is superb [by Richard Lee], plus there's a lovely spread of black & white shots on the inside of the foldout booklet [by Jimmy Katz], visually the whole thing is well thought out indeed, the front cover is a real close up of his head, hand on his brow / head, lovely use of lighting which gives soft shadows, lovely crisp and sharp, the white lettering of the personnel / instruments is mine, rubbed on transfers, i always like to know who's playing what without opening the booklet, and i'm truly pleased with my work here, i really love this album cover.
The two tracks which i so much enjoyed on this listen were 6 & 10, here's a short explanation of each,
6 All Or Nothing At All - This is my favourite track on the album, i love Kurt Rosenwinkel's twanging guitar lines in the introduction [0:00-0:21], and the lovely interplay with the drummer Brian Blade [0:08+], the tune is excellent [by Arthur Altman], Turner plays it straight and beautiful, and then the change comes as he plays it in a higher register [1:06-1:28], it really does make a difference, sweet and strong, and then when he turns it back down to the opening [1:29+], it again sounds great, Blade gets nicely a bit more into it, Rosenwinkel gets in his solo [1:52-2:33], upping the franticness, and Blade really gets in some inspired playing, they really create sparks off each other, then Turner gets a more complex solo in [2:34-3:40], and i love the way Blade can use those toms, he's such an exciting drummer, Turner version of a song made famous by Frank Sinatra is fantastic.
10 Jesus Maria - A Carla Bley composition, well i certainly learn something by writing this music Blog, it's a nice gentle tune, a bit monotonous at times, again the drumming is clever, gentle and inventive, almost like bongos at certain points, Turner and the Pianist Kevin Hayes have a nice little tag duet [2:25+], an inspired infectious little tune, and a good closer.
Here's the All Music site, which has 30 second samples from all of the tracks.
6 All Or Nothing At All - This is my favourite track on the album, i love Kurt Rosenwinkel's twanging guitar lines in the introduction [0:00-0:21], and the lovely interplay with the drummer Brian Blade [0:08+], the tune is excellent [by Arthur Altman], Turner plays it straight and beautiful, and then the change comes as he plays it in a higher register [1:06-1:28], it really does make a difference, sweet and strong, and then when he turns it back down to the opening [1:29+], it again sounds great, Blade gets nicely a bit more into it, Rosenwinkel gets in his solo [1:52-2:33], upping the franticness, and Blade really gets in some inspired playing, they really create sparks off each other, then Turner gets a more complex solo in [2:34-3:40], and i love the way Blade can use those toms, he's such an exciting drummer, Turner version of a song made famous by Frank Sinatra is fantastic.
10 Jesus Maria - A Carla Bley composition, well i certainly learn something by writing this music Blog, it's a nice gentle tune, a bit monotonous at times, again the drumming is clever, gentle and inventive, almost like bongos at certain points, Turner and the Pianist Kevin Hayes have a nice little tag duet [2:25+], an inspired infectious little tune, and a good closer.
Here's the All Music site, which has 30 second samples from all of the tracks.
