|
Mitch Marcus Quintet - The
Special
2007
The Mitch Marcus Quintet plays 21st century jazz:
adventurous music that swings with all the muscularity and verve
of pioneers like Mingus, Monk, and Rollins, but pays tribute to
that glorious past by daring to advance the sweet science of collective
improvisation into the future.
The quintet's influences range freely through the
last few decades of musical exploration – you can hear everything
in it from the luminous harmonies of Ellington and Strayhorn to
the on-a-dime turnarounds of Ornette's groups to Zappa's perpetually
surprising melodic inventions – but they sound like no one but themselves,
the sign of true innovators.
These qualities of freshness and boldness shouldn't
be as rare as they are; but Marcus and company have happily freed
themselves from the deadly reverence for previously-discovered territory
that drags down many younger jazz players these days.
The Special is music that reawakens the hip listener
to the potential of the vast undiscovered terrain ahead. The album
also boasts the singularly warm, organic, and punchy production
aesthetic of Stephen Barncard, an underappreciated genius who has
specialized in drawing out the full embodiment of his musicians'
imaginations for over three decades now.
Classic Barncard projects like the Grateful Dead's
American Beauty and David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name
established new highwater marks for the recording of acoustic guitars
and vocals in their day; it's wonderful to hear on The Special how
readily Barncard's uncompromising commitment to the natural sounds
of well-played instruments in an uncluttered ambience translates
to contemporary jazz.
The poet Ezra Pound's challenge to his generation
of writers was to always "Make it new." The Mitch Marcus Quintet
has taken up that challenge with the perfect balance of control
and abandon, which is the very essence of jazz. In a world of play-it-safe
hybrids of tired forms and well-intentioned-but-tepid homages to
the great ones, Marcus and his colleagues are the real thing.
Steve Silberman, contributing editor
Wired magazine
|
