Search - Terence Blanchard :: Choices

Simply Amazing, Blanchard's best yet!

Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus! | 09/24/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you're wondering about the appearance of Cornell West and Bilal, don't be confused -- this is a very musical, modern jazz CD, and the music is some of the best I've heard. The Terrance Blanchard projects make music that connects with you, is deeply emotional, and musically sophisticated at the same time. And the musicianship is top notch...Terrence Blanchard on trumpet, Lionel Louke on guitar, Kendrick Scott on Drums, Fabian almazan on Piano, and Walter Smith III on Sax. I also like the appearance of Bilal (vocals on two tracks) and was thrilled to hear this band play his beautiful song "When will you call"



This is an amazing CD, and as much as I love 'Flow' and 'A Tale of God's Will', this album in my opinion has built upon those. The compositions are breath-taking, my favorites being Derrick Hodge's "Winding Roads" and "A New World." The other songs are strong as well, but those simply took my breath away."

Blanchard's Best work to date

Anthony R. Guarriello | Rutherfordton NC | 02/20/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'll be honest at first I wasn't sure what to make of the excerpts of conversation of Blanchard & Cornel West placed in between most of the tunes on this album, the reason for this is I'd rather have the music make it's own statement & another reason is personally I find Dr. West alittle cheesy & long winded but I respect Blanchard for putting out an album that strays from the everyday jazz album. I think the music on this album is very strong & most if not all the band members contributed compositions. The supporting cast was the main reason I bought this album. Blanchard has done what Miles Davis had done with his great quintets by recruiting some of the best & brightest young musicians on the scene. Walter Smith iii on tenor sax is a great player with a unique sound & also a good composer bringing his tune Him or Me to this album, Walter Smith is starting to appear everywhere these days as a leader with three albums to his credit. His debut albumCasually Introducing as well as a live album & co op with sax man Mark SmallBronze. On acoustic & electric bass is Derek Hodge a young monster bassist who has worked with Mulgrew Miller's trio appearing on two great live Mulgrew records, Hodge contributed the tune A New World(created inside the walls of imagination) which in my opinion is the best song on the album. Lionel Loueke returns on guitar being on Blanchard's last two Blue Note albums, his presence is subtle & understated but he does get in a few good rips favoring his solidbody electric's clean sound with an octave effect which is becoming his trademark sound. On piano is a young man who is a new name to me Fabian Almazan who contributes the tune Hugs & a aggressive ornate piano style similar to Brad Meldau. Completing the rhythm section on drums is Kendrick Scott a 29 year old texan groove machine who if you haven't been keeping up with the jazz scene is almost everyone's favorite drummer, only 29 & already appeared on close to 100 jazz albums playing with jazz master Herbie Hancock & young lions Jimmy Greene & Seamus Blake as well as recording under his own name, needless to say this is one bad man on the drum kit, the chops of Tony Williams & the finesse of Paul Motain with some church spirit. Terence is sounding great as usual with his unique trumpet sound & singular writing style. The music in my opinion is a sort of post bop infused with a modern sort of musical fusion that you get from a diverse group of guys such as this. I'd like to close by saying don't let "Cornel West's tirade" like one of our fellow reviewers eloquently put it put you off of this album because the music out weights anything Dr. West has to say. Check this great album out."

Good, but for God's sake, see this man's live performance

MilesTrane21 | 04/24/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The moment I heard that Terence Blanchard's quintet was coming to the University I live 5 minutes away from, I made sure that I had tickets, and when the day came and I saw this group live, I was blown away. The group came about half an hour late because bad weather meant some plane flights from NYC were canceled, so some of the members of the group had to take a train to Philly to take a plane from there to North Carolina, where I live. The group was mostly the same as the one on this record, but Blanchard's longtime tenor counterweight Brice Winston was back in place of Walter Smith III and Michael Olatuja took Derrick Hodge's place. At first, only the rhythm section took the stage, and the concert began with a beautiful bass solo by Olatuja as Blanchard and Winston walked out on stage. As Fabian Almazan came in with some gorgeous harmonies, and Kendrick Scott started playing lightly, Terence played some of the spoken-word by Dr. Cornel West. When it finished, Blanchard and Winston played the theme to "Byus" and then they launched into brilliant improvisation, full of contrasts of dynamics and furious passages next to astoundingly lyrical ones. They played several more tunes, each of them very extended, but always fascinating. Mr. Blanchard also talked to the crowd, and proved himself to be a very articulate and funny man as well as a brilliant musician. It was one of the greatest concerts I've ever seen. This concert, with performances I've seen by Kenny Garrett and by David Binney with Chris Potter sitting in at New York's 55 Bar during a recent trip to NY, have made me a lot more optimistic about the future of jazz than I had been.



After the concert, I got to meet the musicians and got their autographs, and they were all humble and personable. Some people were selling this disc outside as well, and I did not hesitate to buy it.



It is only because of that concert I found this disc to be mildly disappointing. The compositions on here are the same ones that were featured at the concert, but the improvisations never get to the levels of passion that I saw exhibited at the concert. I feel like this band was limited by the recording studio and the number of compositions they chose to include. In the concert, they played 7 songs at most, and the concert was about two hours long. On this recording, there are 15 songs featured in about an hour and a quarter. At the concert, they simply had more space to stretch out and really build their solos up to a climax. Here, they seem cut short when I feel like they are on the verge of getting to something fantastic. This record has the same moments of exquisite subdued beauty that the concert had, but it never reaches the same heights as the players did in concert. What comes out of this is an excellent record, but one that left me with a feeling of disappointment. Part of it was that seeing and hearing a player do it live is always superior because of audio quality and spirit, but at the same time, this record features a much more subdued feeling than the live performance. I also feel like part of it is the absence of Brice Winston on this record. While Smith is an excellent player, he never seems to get in the zone the way Winston does, and I personally love it when musicians get to that level of intensity. And with Winston as his foil instead of Smith, I feel like Blanchard reaches for those moments more as well.



I still would recommend this disc, but if you have the resources and the opportunity to see Blanchard live, you should waste no time trying to get tickets. He is one of modern jazz's best players, composers, and leaders."