Search - John Abercrombie :: Rarum Xiv: Selected Recordings (Dig)

Great music, more needed

snoticus | Morristown, New Jersey United States | 06/30/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The ECM Rarum recordings highlight the careers of some of the pivotal artists of the label as well as their sideman appearances. Abercrombie, a 30-year veteran of ECM, is the 14th artist profiled in the series. Nearly every album he's made has been issued on ECM, save for a handful of releases on smaller labels such as Steeplechase, New Albion, or Justin Time.
That being said, I agree with thx1138b's review of the album which declares that as the house guitarist of the label for more than 3 decades, he deserves a double album just as much as Keith Jarrett and Jan Garberek have. The record fits 10 tracks/80 minutes of music on one disc. I myself am basically discovering Abercrombie and I figure that this should be the first album to buy. Several of the tracks are flawless: Stray from the John Abercrombie Quartet (Is this in print?) album features John on mandolin guitar giving the up-tempo waltz a bright contrast to the dreamy, darker tones of Richie Beirach. Carol's Carol, a tune from the Dan Wall-Adam Nussbaum trio gets the same feel as the more well know organ trio of Scofield-Larry Goldings-Bill Stewart and has some firey soloing when Abercrombie cranks up the overdrive (Imagine Hendrix meets Jim Hall). Abercrombie also proves himself as a spellbinding acoustic player when performing duets with Ralph Towner on Avenue or solo on Memoir. My favorite track on the album is Homecoming featuring the Gateway trio of Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette (How can you go wrong?) that goes from free to Holland cranking out some hard swingin walking lines over Abercrombie's pedal tones.
All in all, this album is a good overview of John Abercrombie's career on ECM, though because of a 30-year relationship with Manfred Eicher and the label's many artists, one wonders why he was restricted to a single disc of music."

A good place to start, but it needs more

THX1138b | NY USA | 04/05/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It's hardly fair to try to put 30 years of music on a single CD. John deserved a 2 CD set to represent him well (so far only Jarrett and Garbarek have been so well treated in this series). So what we get here is a vary wide ranging selection from power-house to swing to solo. But what is here is great music, in the end it's a good listen, but I would not want this to be the only JA I own."

First time hearing John Abercrombie

FePe | Denmark | 04/29/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I had never before heard John Abercrombie when I put this album in my cd player, but I soon enjoyed listening to this diverse selection of material from his 30 years with ECM. The quality is superb as always, but what is more important, the playing is delicate, interesting, even stunning at times.The first piece is "Timeless", actually the first tune with Abercrombie as a leader. It sure lives up to its title with its slow, universal beat and melancholic guitar and organ. The next piece, "Sorcery I" is a trio recording with Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette, and if "Timeless" was a little slow for some listeners, "Sorcery I" will definetely wake you up. It's powerful free playing as free power playing should be. As to show all his potentiel in the least amount of time, the next piece is a guitar duo with Ralph Towner, and the piece after that is the solo tune "Memoir", composed by Abercrombie. Piece 5-10 is also diversely selected; a quartet, another trio, a quintet, yet another trio, the Holland-DeJohnette trio again, and finally another quartet.After hearing what John Abercrombie sounds like, I have wanted to hear more of this kind of music. And these Rarum collections is a good way to find out what to buy, so what I'm saying is just that this release is worth buying if you're new to Abercrombie's music."