Search - Tom Varner :: Swimming

Awesome

AJ Todd | Dallas, Texas | 06/01/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a great CD. Right off the bat he hooks you in. The virtuosity with which Tom Varner plays in amazing. On an instrument so low on the totem pole in jazz, Mr. Varner is making a name for it and bringing it into the mainstream. In my opinion, this is a great piece of art."

Music to live with for a long time

Ian Muldoon | Coffs Harbour, NSW Australia | 08/06/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Mr Varner is quoted in the liner notes to this fine album as asking whether artists can produce excellent work when they are happy - not a silly question because he is referring to a common belief that the best art is the outcome of emotional and financial torment and, as in other arts, jazz for want of a better term, has its legends: Bix Beiderbecke, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and others who suffered the torments of alcoholism, drugs, and other hardships in service to their art. On the other hand, jazz has Duke Ellington, Reggie Workman, and many others who have produced great art without recourse to the level of suffering of those others. Tom Varner is a an artist, a professional, who puts a lot of time and care into his recorded work and clearly treats the production of an album as a major opportunity to clarify, document and discipline his art. He is a major artist in contemporary music and if his name is on a work rest assured you will be witness to outstanding contemporary music performed by major musicians of the day. I have listened to SWIMMING over three years and still marvel at its swing, variety, pulse, harmonic interest, and emotional power and as the dying notes of Chicago Interlude disappear, I am tempted to play it again. Like fine wine though, I hold back and listen to some background music for a rest.

Be warned - you are around whilst Tom Varner is making this music- catch ALL OF IT while you can."