Search - Mark Turner :: Dharma Days

Classic

B | houston, tx | 09/06/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Mark Turner is the best saxophone player you've never heard of. He's more unique, daring, and accomplished in his soloing and songwriting than most other members of the new school. He's also constructed an excellent group. Rosenwinkel is the only other musician who shares his conception, and therefore proves an excellent foil. His comping and voicings are apt and his effects are tasteful and add to the peculiar, shadowy atmosphere. Reid Anderson, acclaimed bassist of The Bad Plus, provides grounding while the terribly underrated Nasheet Waits takes excursions into the land outside of solid time. His drumming is more of a foreground element than Turner's super-clean harmonic runs, and his use of the drum's colors is very musical. This interplay, set against Turner's array of intriguing compositions, makes for a remarkable record.All the songs are very nice, but Iverson's Odyssey showcases everyone and never gets old, and the second half of Myron's World is very cool too. It's also nice that none of the ballads are throwaway tracks. Like The Miles Davis - Wayne Shorter material, it takes a while to get into the style, but it's worth the effort."

Oblique & intelligent modern jazz

N. Dorward | Toronto, ON Canada | 11/08/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"My previous encounter with Mark Turner as a leader was his self-titled 1998 major-label debut, an auspicious & engaging disc that showcased a tenor style that borrowed equally from Coltrane & Warne Marsh. It was a vibrant & often passionate session, which sounded very personal despite its de-emphasis of Turner's compositional skills (only one track, the opening blues, was his own tune). _Dharma Days_ is an altogether more oblique album, with a very different sound. Turner's main partner here is the guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, whose fleet, echoey lines draw on players like Metheny, Abercrombie & McLaughlin while remaining very distinctive in their insinuating grace. The band is completed by the bassist Reid Anderson & the drummer Nasheet Waits. The most obvious classic precedent for the sound of this disc is not Coltrane or the Tristano school but Miles Davis's mid-1960s work with Wayne Shorter; there's the same synthesis of cool & abstraction, & something of the same polar relation between soloists & rhythm section--while Turner is notably veiled, even reticent, the drums are very much to the fore.Despite several listens this album remains something of an enigma to me--it's highly accomplished, & yet its emotional weight is very hard to gauge. Turner's playing is much more "personal" than on the Warner debut--it's much further from his sources now, & his voice is unmistakable; & yet the warmth & emotional directness of the early album is strikingly absent. His playing is near-vibratoless, & even during solos rarely seizes the foreground. On the whole, this date seems to me ultimately rather colourless; it works best on tracks like "Seven Points", which are entirely atmosphere rather than swinging.Worth a listen, but not Turner's finest moment."

Brilliant!

Gary Mayne | Colorado Springs, Colorado USA | 02/25/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I discovered Mark Turner courtesy of an article by Ben Ratliff in the New York Times in which Ratliff declared that Turner was one of the best saxophonists playing today. He was right and "Dharma Days" is Turner's best outing to date.
Some may find it a difficult recording but stick with it, the rewards are immense. This is ensemble playing of the highest order with each musician individually at the top of their game yet subordinating their huge talents for the whole. The work conveys an introspective intensity rarely heard in music.
Sadly, it was Turner's last cd on Warners. Hopefully he will turn up soon on a smaller label. In the meantime, get all his work but most of all, get this one."