Bass Desires

Great CD

This is one of the great ECM albums - if not the very best and it is also an album that I can never grow tired of. It is also a far from typical ECM album. Most albums in my collection get played 10 times at most but Ive lost count of the number of times I have played this. It has elements of rock, jazz and blues on it and yet it doesnt really conform to any of those labels and it is completely different and totally brilliant. I dont think any of the vituoso musicians on this have ever done anything as good since and I really wish they would get back together and do some more. The opener Samurai He-haw is startling and if the rest doesnt match it for sheer excitement then it more than makes up for it with skill and mood. I guess for the most part its a jazz quartet album but with two guitars instead of sax and piano. Frisell takes most of the chordal harmony parts and Schofield wails more in his bluesy way but at many times the two guitars solo together to great effect. The follow -up second sight was good too. This also has a very nice cover.

A jazz classic that runs out of steam a bit towards the end, but worth it for the opening two cuts alone.

I bought this LP (yes, it was on vinyl) when it was originally released and listened to it again yesterday. The CD features bassist Marc Johnson, drummer Peter Erskine and guitarists John Scofield and Bill Frissel. The creativity displayed throughout by all present is breathtaking. The interplay between Scofield and Frissel is at the absolute highest level and the highly distictive playing of each of them militates against any confusion as to who is playing which part. The voices at play are as individual as if they had been a trumpet and sax. Scofield is the more conventional guitarist but that is in no way indicative of the slightest degree of mediocrity; his lines weave through the tunes and leave no corner unexplored yet the guitarist leaves plenty of space for everyone to breath. Frissel remains in a world of his own making and paints with sound in the way we have come to know. His intonation is wonderfully idiosyncratic and he always sounds out of tune without ever straying from the tempered note. Astonishing.'Samurai Hee Haw', a Johnson original, has become something of a standard but this is, if I am not mistaken, the original take. The piece is defined by Johnson's line but the Eastern flavoured melody is simple yet intriguing. Erskine underpins everything with aplomb. 'Resolution' is taken from Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' but the nature of this ensemble takes the tune in a whole new direction. The melodic interplay between Frissel and Scofield is a pleasure to hear, as each patiently defers to the other throughoout. Is jazz a democracy? Erskine's 'Bass Desires' again features Frissel and Scofield dancing together against a Johnson pedal and the feel generated is unprecedented. 'Thanks Again', a Scofield tune, was never better than it is here.The CD is a must have for anyone seeking to comprehend the potential of a two guitar jazz setting. This is as good as it gets.