Marty Ehrlich - Line on Love

List Price: $11.98
Our Price: $7.75
You Save: $4.23 (35%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.95 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details

CD Details

Music reviews of Line on Love

Music Review: A breakthrough recording
Rating: 5 Stars

Marty Ehrlich seems to be one of those rare jazzmen, perhaps like Joe Henderson or Joe Lovano--whom he scarcely resembles from a tonal or conceptual standpoint--who come into their full glory only after plying their trade in the jazz world for many years. Unlike a Sonny Rollins or Joshua Redmond, who take the scene by storm and then, seemingly, mail in their chops, Ehrlich has labored mostly in the jazz backwaters, slowly building a unique voice and conception, only to mightly unleash it in his middle years.

His new disc, Line on Love, besides being one of the absolute best recordings of a remarkable year for jazz, 2003, represents Ehrlich coming completely into his own as composer, leader, and altoist.

Let's start with his alto sax playing. There's a richness and depth here sometimes lacking in previous recordings. For a while, he seemed to favor the slightly pinched, sour approach to alto, so prevalent among contemporary players. That's gone. What we get instead is a keening, glorious fullness, with an entirely welcome sly vibrato, analgous to though not in any way derivitive of Jan Garbarek's tenor sound. Has he been engaged in some serious woodshedding? Sure sounds like it to me.

As leader, he has assembled perhaps his optimal, though certainly not obvious, band. Craig Taborn in the piano chair was an inspired choice. A player possessed of a thorough-going though not slavish understanding of The Tradition filtered through a brilliantly modern sensibility, Taborn has proved himself in a number of challenging settings such as his own trio recording and Tim Berne's wildy wacky Sciencefriction band. Here he simply astounds with his impossibly brilliant solo on "Julian's Theme," and his dancing virtuosity on "Solace." Taborn underscores his position as a jazz pianist who will have to be seriously reckoned with in the upcoming years.

Mitchel Formanek meshes ideally in this setting. A player who seems to have struggled to find the optimal place to ply his monster bass chops, these hip, edgy environs perfectly suit his nouveau voice. Check out his glorious solo on "Turn Circle and Spin" for an indication of what he brings to the table, as well as his foundational playing throughout.

Billy Drummond, likewise, seems to have fallen between two stools. Neither a monster newcomer such as Brian Blade or Montez Coleman nor a seasoned veteran such as Jack DeJohnette, he could easily be overlooked. But he acquits himself again and again on this outing. Especially attractive to me is work on "St. Louis Summer," where he defines the piece by means of a muscular, blue-collarlike approach to his kit, wonderfully evoking all the sweat and majesty of a Midwestern heat wave. And his percussive thrust on "The Git Go" contains a very attractive restless energy that turns this piece into a real stunner.

Compositionally, this disc displays a bredth and depth seldom found among jazz writers. Again, Ehrlich's brilliance and richness, revealing themselves only after extended "cellaring," like a fine wine, come fully to the fore, wrapping the listener in glorious soundscapes magically evoked. To these ears, the two baritone clarinet numbers display an especially attractive and engaging vibe.

What we have here, folks, is jazz of the highest possible order, absolutely accessible, impossibly deft, and marvelously sophisticated. Certainly among the greatest jazz discs released in the past decade.

Jazz CDs

• Music > Styles
• Pop