With the
onset of fan donation pages all over the Internet, artists, musicians and
inventors of all sorts can now speak directly with their fans and solicit funds
for all types of projects. Some are fantastical like 'help me turn into a cat'
fund or 'help make my paper clip rocket ship a reality', but more often than
not it is a musician with a book of songs that means the world to them and are
looking for a way to make their vision a reality. There are even added perks to
sites like these. They come in the form of incentives for the public's
donations, such as a copy of the completed album or even executive producer
credits.
The Max
Johnson Quartet is a success story born from this new artist driven way to
produce music. From a business model to recording and art work, (fantastic by
the way if you can get a close look at it) to getting Not Two Records to back
the recording.
Track 1
entitled 'Elephant March', is as
close to a perfect track as I have ever heard. It has an accessible opening
jazz structure and not just one designed to get to the solos quickly. It is
full of youthful abandon and it sounds like it could fall apart and moment in a
good way, a very good way. Tyshawn Sorey (drums) is tasked with a very complicated
chart as the rest of the quartet; Max Johnson (bass), Steve Swell (trombone),
and Mark Whitecage (saxes and clarinet) try everything in their collective
power to shake him. They are sometimes ahead of the beat and sometimes behind
it. Part pebble tossed in a clear pond, part tsunami but always on the verge of
disaster yet still gorgeous to look at (listen to).
Part of
what makes a leader great is the ability to be humble when needed to be, be
genuine and confident in their decisions and have the skill and ability to
perform when the finger eventually gets pointed at them. A perfect audible
explanation of this is 'Lost and Found
(for Henry Grimes)'. Johnson studied under Grimes during his stay at New
School University and this track reads part final exam and part pride in what
was passed from master to student. Johnson travels through many bass techniques
without ever sounding like a warm up exercise. The track is a well thought out
and very personal dedication indeed.
'60-66' is
one of those tracks that start out as a good idea in theory but ends up being a
great track in reality. It develops into a track of duos as Swell and Whitecage
build a sound to give way to Johnson and Sorey who also develop their own
sound. Each time the duos change it gets better until the finale where both
duos are on fire.
Johnson
releases a sigh as the album comes to an end on 'Iset-Ra'. A joyous melody leads to a bass solo where all the
pressure of making an album and the realization of why people do it in the
first place all gets released through his fingers and the wood and steel
responds.
So follow
your musicians closely and donate to get their albums released. It could mean
the difference between getting them recorded or not.
© stef
2 comments:
http://maxjohnson.bandcamp.com/album/quartet
Great review! Went to Bandcamp, listened and bought this great album! Thanks for the heads up.
(Oh, this review is linked to from the Max Johnson website http://www.maxjohnsonmusic.com/live under the Press heading! Congrats!)
~Steve
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