Jazz fans--this is a CD for you!
dawn1515 | NJ | 03/12/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I first heard Dan Faulk when he was playing for TanaReid [Akira Tana (drums), and Rufus Reid (bass). This was such an unusual group, its founders being the rhythm section... Well, I went not sure what I would hear, and I really loved this group: they had modern hip sound and were really swinging. And, liking this group, I heard Faulk, their saxophonist. What a incredible soloist! So I have been following his career, and I am so pleased to see his new CD! It is great! It's all originals.. before you groan, let me say he is a fabulous composer, and I think we will all be saying "I knew him when..." There are 3 songs I like especially. a) There's a blues called Crawfish which is an 11-beat blues. It has this loping gait to it, 5 beats, then 6.. You get what I mean? Anyhow it goes into regular 4/4 time in the solos...It is so swinging and such a deep take on the blues! b) He's also written a bossa nova! I knew Dan played with Steve Turre and some other Latin cats, but I didn't know he wrote in Latin style. This is a heartbreaking tune, really beautiful. It is called "You Thirty Years Ago" and it makes you wonder who he's talking about... c) Finally, one of my favorites is "Vote" which is this really COOOOOOL modern piece; it's kind of acid jazz but let me say, Faulk's thoroughly grounded in the REAL STUFF, I mean being able more than just playing on the changes; truly he's a deep soloist, he's got some mean bebop and post bop attitude in there. Anyhow, it goes up in this shrieking way: "VOTE!!!!!". You've just got to hear it to believe. I mean, I'm picking these 3 but THE WHOLE ALBUM is excellent. There's not a song on it that I don't like. That is super rare for a CD, jazz or otherwise. So if you like REAL jazz and you wanna hear something swinging, modern (as opposed to traditional jazz), and just altogether mind-blowing, this is it!"
Track Listings (10) - Disc #1
