Search - Kazutoki Umezu :: Eclecticism

Amazing live punky jazz album

bimwa | Australia | 03/12/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you like The Lounge Lizards or Marc Ribot's Rootless Cosmopolitans (both of which share a few members with the lineup on this album) chances are you'll love this album. It is jazz but in the widest sense of the word, encompassing world music, spaghetti westerns, punk, and whatever else.From that point of view, as well as the fact that a powerful, squealing sax player leads the group, this can be likened to John Zorn's Naked City. But that's pretty much where the likeness ends - while Naked City is slick, Umezu's band is raw and dirty. Guitarist Marc Ribot is the obvious choice to play this music, and he certainly stands out here, his beautiful crunchy tone all over this recording. But the whole band is fantastic, Curtis Fowlkes on trombone, Brad Jones on bass, Samm Bennett on percussion, Dougie Bowne on drums, and of course the wonderful Kazutoki Umezu on reeds.The compositions (all Umezu originals) are extremely varied - the noisy swing of Yakitori, the spaghetti of Western Picaro, the beautiful drone of Juicy Mami, the funky latin Stable Seven and the wonky waltz of Ballet Dancer.It's pretty remarkable that all eight brilliant pieces are taken from one live show, but according to the booklet this all went down at the Knitting Factory on the 27th of October 1992. An amazing show, and an amazing album."