Jazz Is Dead - Great Sky River
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CD Details
Artist: Jazz Is DeadEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2001-07-31
Music Label: Zebra Records
Soundtracks:
- China Cat Sunflower
- Estimated Prophet
- St. Stephen/The eleven
- Drums & Jam
- Blues For Allah
- Terrapin Station/Dark Star
- Terrapin 2
- Morning Dew
Music reviews of Great Sky River
Music Review: Solid, but not their best effort.
Rating: 4 Stars
Now don't get me wrong, I dig this CD, the sound is good, the tracks are more or less good, but I cannot put it in the same league as Blue Light Rain or Laughing Water. I think BLR was the quinticensial JID album. Billy, Jimmy, Alfonso, and T. all did a masterful job of capturing the the true jazzy essence of the Dead's music. That album was perfectly executed, no one overplayed and everyone's playing just melted together to form a cohesive body of pure soulful music. Jimmy did not display his mind bending licks on that album, but he did showcase his uncanny ability to create beautiful flowing melodies that rolled along with the music. Herring played some extemely tastey stuff even if he wasn't pushing the envelope of his technical ability. Very rarely have I heard a band so in tune to each other. If you disagree with me just go and give that album a thourough listening, they are so tight and the music is so perfect (not to mention the sound, its hard to tell that it is all live). Laughing Water was another great CD, although I'd rank it just the slightest bit below BLR. LW does feature different drummers (Sipe and Morganstein) and that does really change the sound of the band (not in a bad way at all, just different). The band did lose a little of that Billy Cobham swagger that only Billy can provide, but Jeff and Rod were more than worthy replacements. Herring also switched to a PRS guitar with a ballzier set up which sort said goodbye to the sweet Fender tones of BLR and opened the door for those heavy distorted mind bending crunchy licks that Herring is the master of. I love this album because it takes slighly heavier approach to the music and Herring really steps up to the plate and delivers some amazing stuff while still keeping a lid on it to a certain extent. Great Sky River differs from the first two albums because there is more agressive soloing by Herring. Although I do live to hear this man play guitar I must say that I think he overdoes some of his solos. His solo on Estimated Profit is definitley impressive but seems too detached, too outlandish. I loved the way he would slowley bring up his solos on the first two albums and rely more on harmony than chops. On this album he goes right for the juggular and I think that pushes the music into the realm of Prog. Rock rather than Jazz (as their name implies). I'm not insulting his playing, I just prefer the more toned down approach to this music. Also, Rod Morganstien, although an imensly talented drummer, is a little overbearing sometimes. Billy would just carry a song from start to finish laying down a solid and intoxicating groove. Morganstein, on the other hand, is more rock oriented and does some pretty wild stuff, more wild than his work on LW I feel. Because of this I feel like Alfonso gets a little lost sometimes. He is a very groove oriented player and I liked the pairing of Billy and Alfonso more than I do the pairing of Rod and Alfonso (not to say that Alfoso's playing on this album is bad, I just feel his style better fits Billy's). T's playing also suffers from this overplaying syndrom. His work on BLR was brilliantly tastey, he stepped it up a notch on LW but again he still had a lid on his playing. On this album he blows it right off. Besides the playing I also feel that the sound isn't as good as the first two albums, its a litte raw, but still outstanding considering its all live. Anyway, I hope you all keep in mind that this is just my opinion, if you like a more rowdy version of JID then this is the album for you, no doubt about it. Even if you are skeptical about buying it you still should because the performaces are action packed and when it comes down to it you really can't go wrong with such a fine assembly of musicians. After all I am giving this album four stars, that is still quite a compliment even after this laundry list of opinions. But if you do not have the first two albums (especially BLR) then GET THEM IMMEDIATLEY! I promise you will not be sorry AT ALL. They are NASTY albums that deserve to be in ANY music lovers collection.
Description of Great Sky River
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