The "New Rolling Stone Record Guide" gave it 5 stars!
Walter Flint | Yosemite, CA USA | 05/01/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Yes, that pantheon of great musical taste (wink wink) gave this album 5 stars in a review from 1981, as it well should. "Mar West" is one of a quartet of great instrumental jazz recordings that Tony Rice made in the late 70's and early 80's and it's now finally available in its entirety on this Japanese import. All the songs on this album, sans "Mar East", are available on the Rounder Records compiltation titled "Devlin". The sound of this import is noticeably better than Rounders compilation with a much greater spaciousness and acoustic timbre. This album marks a real milestone in Tony Rice's long and illustrious career both as guitar player and composer. 7 of the 8 songs are original Rice compositions with the only non-Rice song having been written by Miles Davis. This is essentially a "blowing" album with plenty of room given to the sidemen to solo and it demonstrates Rices's ability to pick the best musicians to help implement his musical vision. The supporting musicians are Richard Greene on violin, Sam Bush on Mandolin and Todd Phillips on Stand-up Bass. Floridian Mike Marshall also plays mandolin on two cuts without Sam Bush. This is essentially a quartet recording. The heads to the tunes are all very memorable (like all Rice compositions) and Tony sounds confident, positive, and absolutely riveting. Never one to showboat for showboatings sake, Mr. Rice rips your head off at 1:14 on "Is That So", and then almost brings a tear to the eye with the lovely and lillting "Whoa Baby, Every Day I Wake Up With the Blues". Rice's solo on the title song gives aspiring flatpickers a lesson in fast tremelo picking that would surely make Al DiMeola listen twice. In my, and many other peoples opinions, Tony Rice is the greatest and most influential guitar player bluegrass has ever produced. Not limited by the regular bluegrass form in any way, Tony Rice's guitar playing simply transcends catagorization. He is a virtuoso player seething with unparalleled feeling and emotion, and is also a superb interpreter of other peoples's material both instrumentally and vocally. Mr.Rice is an American treasure and deserves to be heard by everyone. If success was measured by actual talent in this country, Tony Rice would be one of the wealthiest musicians in any genre of music. Buy "Mar West", or any other recording by this phenomenal artist, and find out why."
Track Listings (8) - Disc #1
Bridget S. (Vassar) from PLYMOUTH, IN