Details / Tracklist: |
01. "First River" 02. "Second River" 03. "Third River" 04. "Fourth River" 05. "Fifth River" 06. "Sixth River" 07. "Seventh River" 08. "Eighth River" 09. "Ninth River"
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Number of discs: |
1 |
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Description: | The most well informed aficionados of NYCâ??s jazz avant garde speak of pianist John Blum with reverential respect, yet his discography is shockingly small for someone with a three decade career: five albums as a leader, four as a sideman. Blum studied piano with seminal avant gardist Cecil Taylor and ambidextrous master Borah Bergman, and it shows, yet his style at its most intense is more thickly textured than even theirs, and fully individualistic. Blumâ??s left hand recalls James P. Johnson: energy, power, rock solid rhythm driver of the improvisationâ??s engine. And speaking of engines, some of Jimmy Yanceyâ??s locomotive motion is there as well. Blum is actually a very melodic player, but the melodies are short and fast and may not be repeated more than once, so thatâ??s not the quality that the average listener might take away from the experience. Nonetheless, in a 20 minute solo improvisation, he creates enough catchy motivic material that a dozen or more songs could be woven from it. Another of Blumâ??s teachers was Milford Graves; they share the sense of music as a journey to a higher understanding and a life altering and life enhancing practice. Blum looks more like an athlete than a musician, but then, the way he plays piano is athletic and requires a lot of muscle and stamina. The power of the concert performance on this album (performed collaboratively with video) is a revelation. - |
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Manufacturer No.: |
05257752 |
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Product Safety
Responsible Person for the EU:
K7 Music GmbH Gerichtstr. 35, 13347 Berlin, DE www.k7.com |
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