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Jazz purists might roll their eyes a bit at some of the showmanship former Cirque de Soleil violinist Edgar Gabriel brings to his new, Stringfusion, project, but they’d be missing out on a nice album that does its ‘fusion’ moniker proud. Along the way, Gabriel and company borrow from world, country and other traditions to put together an album that manages to transcend the usual bounds of the genre, and entertain greatly along the way.
Leading the way, as might be expected, is Gabriel’s violin, which he shows off to funky effect on, Fat Chance on a Friday Afternoon, the opening track. Would You Be My Valentine, the first of two tracks to feature vocals showcases the sultry sounds of guest, Mauree. The result is reminiscent of the chill moods achieved by the likes of Zero 7, and stands among the best the disc has to offer.
On a couple of tracks, Stringfusion loses its way, as is the case with Mobile, and its approximation of the triumphalist New Age stylings of a John Tesh or a Yanni. Bassist Maurice Houston opens the track by laying down a sly groove, over which Gabriel plays a lilting melody. The latter half of the track is marked by a succession of solos from Gabriel and keyboardist Kevin O’Connell, before Houston brings his bassline back to the fore to close out the effort. The track wanders a bit from Latin modes, to Irish sounding melodies, and loses strength in the process.
Fortunately, the band recaptures the groove on the more straight-ahead, I Knew That, and really shines on the languid, Blue 7. Gabriel mixes up the mood on the latter tracks by playing a enthusiastic fiddle over the laid back keys, before Michael Levin, Steve Doyle (guitar) and O’Connell take their turn at the lead. At over 7 minutes, Blue 7, is the longest track on the disc, which allows the various members of the ensemble to show off a bit.
The rest of the CD continues on this eclectic path, visiting the countrified blues in Train Blue, an elegant plateau in, Farewell to a Friend, the jazzy swing of, Renaissance Man, before ending the journey in “everything including the kitchen sink” mode in Happy World Mix. That last track travels the world within its own confines, bringing together an almost AOR-friendly pop structure to begin, before giving way to more of Gabriel’s fiddling, before ending with an extended Indian-influenced outro, featuring Inderjeet Sidhu’s tabla work.
The CD is all over the place musically, but it’s forgivable because all the facets of the Stringfusion’s personality are worth a look. The greatest success for Not Radio Material is in the fact that it features top notch playing deserving, and even demanding of more serious listening. That aside Edgar Gabriel and company might find commercial advantage in the fact they offer a little something to so many different people through their music.
Musicstreet journal.com
Edgar Gabriel’s StringFusion
Not Radio Material
Review by Gary Hill
I’ve put this into the progressive rock category. It could just as easily fit into “non-prog” as a full jazz contribution. For my money there’s enough rock in the midst of this to include it here. I know, that might also count it in as fusion, but I’ve never been clear on the line between fusion and progressive rock. Prog rock frequently includes a mesh of jazz and rock – and isn’t that what fusion is? In any event, whatever you call it, there is some great music here that should keep fans of jazz and fans of jazzy prog happy.
Any band that'll cover King Crimson, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Frank Zappa (and Gabriel has worked with Page & Plant, Ray Charles, and others) has my undivided attention—not that that's occurring here but this collective of virtuosi has indeed done so, possessing the chops, intelligence, and breadth to embrace all that while setting down here a CD of top-flight jazz fusion along the lines of the Dixie Dregs, Tribal Tech, Spyro Gyra, and the Crusaders…with a little hot jazz a la Django and Grapelli along the way.
Much of Not Radio Material is highly romantic in the lush amorous sense but also Romantic in the classical sense, packed in with tunes standing well with John Klemmer's landmark Barefoot Ballet. Credit Michael Levin's sax and Gabriel's violin for much of that, but don't count out Kevin O'Connell's piano, which treads a line between Brubeck, Evans, and Sample. Gabriel is a big fan of Jean-Luc Ponty, and it shows in his flawless tone and pacing. And, oh man, those background strings come in at exactly the right time! Listen to There Is No Sun Today and see what I mean.
The prog-fusion element jumps in on songs like Mobile, a serial chase-n-variations cut bringing Ponty's great bands back, the ones with Holdsworth, Stuermer, Lievano, and Glaser…with Gabriel taking their parts and Ponty's. Blue 7 be-bops O'Connell back in, but I caution the listener to pay careful attention to Inderjeet Sidhu's drums here and throughout the CD, as they're on an ECM / DeJohnette / Gurtu level, extraordinarily thoughtful, not restricted to rhythm sectioning by any means but fully in the musical conversation. Once you lock into them, you'll more strongly catch Maurice Houston's perambulating bass, a cat definitely from the old jazz school and too often undermixed in the cuts (the only small complaint I have here—well, that and the fact that there's not enough of Stevie Doyle's righteous guitar and Sarah Alexander's cello either).
A mystery: in Nose Bleed, it at first appears that Doyle and Gabriel are engaging in a guitar-violin trade-off a la the old Bolin-Hammer duels, where it's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins, but a closer listen makes me wonder. It might be just Gabriel alone, messin' with the envelope characteristics of his instrument. Hotter than hell, in either case. Not Radio Material, in whole, is almost all-instrumental with a few vocal cuts, an hour long, and pure pleasure in a very refined sense. It cuts a wide channel through a number of genres and will find high favor among those lamenting that this particular type of fusion is slowly falling by the wayside, too sophisticated for New Age / The Wave type venues and too romantic for the hot-chops-n-nothin-but crew. For the rest of us, it works beautifully.
Their album name, Not Radio Material, couldn't be more approriate. Edward Gabriel's StringFusion music is a very interesting (and rare) blend of classical instrumentals, primarily violin string arrangements, blended with mellow light jazz piano and saxophone riffs.
A sultry vocal is offered on track three, "Would You Be My Valentine" along with a very smooth keyboard solo. The percussion driven samba of track 4, "Mobile", suggests more Latin swing influences, very contemporary and cool. The saxophone on track 5, "I Knew That" really soars to some impressive heights. Down and dirty blues guitar can be heard on the urban slynish of track 6, "Blue 7", probably my favorite composition on this CD.
The fusion of all the musical elements of this band maybe best on display on track 8's "Train Blues". You get the feeling this song was born out of frustration of dealing with Chicago's L-Train, the north Chicago area apparently being this band's home origins.
It's very difficult to put any exacting tag on what this band's sound really, all I know is it makes for some very nice/late night mellow down easy music, a real treat for any jazz enthusiasts. |
