Search - Joe Bergamini :: Arrival

Enjoyable, but not entirely original (or very long!)

Squire Jaco | Buffalo, NY USA | 02/01/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"With drum clinician Joe Bergamini's debut solo album, you get ten pretty good songs in the 3 to 5 minute range, somewhat reminiscent of Joe Satriani and Steve Morse, but jazzier, and with really, REALLY good drums and percussion. Mostly gutsy guitar-driven melodies (all songs written by guitarist Zak Rizvi), with some keyboard coloring. Decent bass guitar work by Frank LaPlaca. (Yes, this is the same group as 4Front). There's not a bad song here, and they all have very distinctive tempos and melodies. I feel somewhat cheated with only 41 minutes of music (especially when track 9 is nearly 7 minutes of solo percussion and drums), but if you think you'd like to hear Satch playing in a jazzier style with awesome upfront (4front?!) drumming and more keyboards, "Arrival" will more than satisfy.

I value interesting music that is played and recorded well. This cd's rating was based on:
Music quality = 8.3/10; Performance = 9/10; Production = 9/10; CD length = 6/10.
Overall score weighted on my proprietary scale = 8.4 ("4 stars")
"