baltostar

here's what i don't understand about the Sco whining on this thread: this music is so large: so large in terms its message, so large in terms of the historic thirst it helps to quench, so large in terms of how hard these veteran masters are pushing each other to the absolute limits ... so large, that one requisite for success on this type of project is having someone with a near endless reservoir of ideas. percussive ideas, yes, JackD is all over it ... jaw dropping. but its never been in the cards that listeners who seriously relate to transcendental musics will be captivated over hours without the presence of a player who posseses a vast reservoir of melodic/harmonic ideas. to sustain its healing, the mind demands ever more variety in helping it to recover the inner universe of understanding upon which we architect our lives but which becomes so badly tarnished and damaged as to be unrecognizable during much of the time we struggle. and transcendental thought most directly related to shifting melodic and harmonic landscapes. there just aren't that many improvisational masters out there with the depth of ideas and the sorcery to weave them together in changing forms to pull this off. taking nothing away from Goldings, who is among my favorites , but Sco is an *ocean* of ideas, most of them original (or at least morphed and reworked to the point that it doesn't matter if their origin can be traced). you simply can't have this band without someone like Sco on board. and i'd have to guess that Goldings would agree that he's not there yet. and i'd have to guess that JackD chose Sco for this band because there are precious few others who could pull it off. i'm struggling to count up enough possibilities to fill one hand.

now that sums up what i don't get about some % of the people on these forums. a lot of you only want one slice of life. i really don't get it. i really don't. it's like in F1 racing, Flavio Briattore, i mean the guy looks and talks like a sleazy leftover disco scumbag. but ... uhhh ... what's wrong with this picture ? why is Renault and Alonso on top and looking unbeatable ? who discovered Senna ? we're talking about a sport where every trick (nasty and otherwise) in the book is deployed -- even though it's already an inherently deadly game. or since that analogy might be like arguing about when to sneak in on low suited connector ... what about Scratch's new album ? it's not like i really care about what's going down on the mean streets of Philly ( in reality or as an artifice ) and i couldn't hang with that scene in any case ... but Scratch is a real innovator, pushing the limits of his craft, and you don't have to be coming from the hip-hop side to see that. and the sounds totally cross over into the younger generation who aren't or just can't be hip to McBride -- DJ Logic or no DJ Logic, Scratch or no Scratch. better than them listening to $0.50 Slash ? what's the big deal ? yeah, now he's getting a little old and fat to pull it off ... but c'mon ! the cat lived a wild life. the hottest babes in the world , 3 or 4 hotel rooms going at once , speedballing from one to the next ... ok, it's a hopelessly shallow road to nowhere, but don't you wish you'd done that in your twenties (that is, if you didn't) ?

what kind of a great anybody includes himself in a list of great anybodies ? well, the massively talented Edmundo proclaimed himself the greatest soccer player in the world ... but that guy is a fucking prick.

sure, everything's relative. my faves currently with us include Kilson, Stewart, DeJohnnette to name a few i've seen live somewhat recently. but Donati wouldn't be making a living playing music if there was no musical value to his playing. it's like saying Slash is a bogus guitarist. sure, onstage with McLaughlin, Sco, Frisell, Metheny, Eubanks, Stern, Seeger ... or, take a younger age group, say, Hunter, Krasno, Moreno, Rogers, Bernard, ... Slash probably wouldn't fare too well. but Slash in his element, can any of the above touch him ? i think not. maybe Vai ... a cat like that, could do some damage ...

http://www.deathcabforcutie.com/

absolutely no musical value ? dude, what's he supposed to do now ? get into the meat tenderizing business ?

JUNE 2 BOBBY PREVITE + MARCO BENEVENTO + BRIGGAN KRAUSS 55 Bar, 55 Christopher, NYC 9:30 pm if anyone catches this one , please post. hopefully they fiddle the knobs the right direction a bit on Benevento's machines. almost blew Hunter off the stage and Skerik right off the map. no guitar ... it can only get worse.

cool man. this is sickness. i've seen all these cats. forman kills ... and it's not at noshis. no factory processing of my evening thank you. i'll show.

i thought Branford did a brilliantly self-centered job of using his forum to settle old scores in his favor. old scores misconstrued, misunderstood, taken out of context, all of the preceding ... or just beyond his comprehension. preaching to the converted it was easy.

that's getting pretty close to what Elvin's wife said at the end of Elvin's final performance. strange for two reasons. one, Elvin was glowing with love for everyone in the room (and I believe all of humanity) - even though he could barely stand or even tom the drums. two, the audience was white by a large majority and mainly was old school , the true faithful from the 60s. guess there are two kinds of white folk. hope we can tell each other apart.

categorization and segmentation of ideas is a very boring trend that unfortunately is becoming the typical paradigm on the web as well as in real life. i find it extremely confining to think about these matters "locked in one box". no aware person's mind really works like that, so why artificially separate thoughts ? also, these are discussion forums, not a dedicated web-page, or a product-review website, or a wikipedia entry. there's enough of that out there already. i'm not trying identify those who do or do not sustain music and musicians in the here and now. and i'm definitely not telling people what to buy or listen to. i am pointing out that jazz' growing obsession with its past is hindering its evolution into a meaningful music of the future. jazz of previous eras is more interesting to many because perhaps it had more social context and weight than today's music does. but currently there's actually quite a bit of space for modern jazz-derived or jazz-influenced musics played by today's musicians to make a significant social impact. and i'll also add that i'm one of the guiltiest parties. i have all sorts of Mosaic boxes and other compilations ... but i rarely listen to them. what i do listen to is recent releases. more often than not , i'm disappointed, but i'll keep trying because that's how the economics of enabling innovators to innovate works.

maybe you should ask the question: who's making all the money off these endless re-celebrations of the music of Satchmo, Bird, Miles, Monk, Mingus, Trane, etc. it isn't the artists, they're long gone. if it's live, like Mingus Big Band, then cool, musicians who need the money get paid for the gig. if it's just more reannotated recompilations of multiple existing compilations of remastered digital masters of vinyl ... you gotta ask the question: how come the average jazz musician can't pay the bills ? part of the answer is that this deification of a few great artists puts much of the jazz buying public into an obsessive-compulsive mode. they don't want to take risks. what's the risk in another Miles or Trane session ? none. it's all great. but how does that help cats who are alive today trying to survive making music ?

i have no knowledge of Previte's finances. however, before spending $1000s on every Miles box extant you might want to consider a living jazz legend by the name of Freddie Hubbard who can no longer play and reportedly is in financial trouble. there are hundreds of Hub dates as leader and sideman to choose from, many are some of the best jazz and funk ever layed down.

just curious ... why are you guys so concerned about Miles reissues specifically ? i've got so much Miles i'll probably never listen to it by the end of my life. in fact, it's even worse than that. because i don't take notes when i'm listening to live Miles, i can't even remember which tracks are the really good ones. so it's not like i can go back and quickly figure out the best tracks to plug into when i need a Miles fix. it's like these guys who collect tapes of live shows. eventually, they end up with so much they have no idea what to listen to. a lot of them can't even make good recommendations, outside of a few gems. they get confused, people start relying on lists on websites -- not necessarily having any relation to your personal preferences. place Miles in the large spectrum of jazz musicians whose music is either unobtainium or worth its weight in platinum , and Miles got by far the best treatment of anyone. relatively speaking ... beyond what he deserves. all this money spent on reissued / unissued Miles would be much better spent supporting those amazing musicians making their living day-by-day from self-produced and marketed music.

I had to work, didn't make it. Did it sell out both sets ? That's what it looked like Ticketweb was saying, but you never know what the really story is. I thought it was interesting that in SF it was 2 long sets for about $30 from TicketWeb (maybe even cheaper at the door), but (according to TicketWeb) at Kuumbwa it was about $30 each set. Well, at least neither place requires that you buy drinks (or at least Kuumbwa didn't last I was there). How was the crowd ?

the NYC scene must be so different than out here on the West Coast. i get the feeling that there's so many incredible musicians that everything is constantly morphing and changing. one player or one group of players has reason to mix with another and in turn that catalyzes all sorts of combinations. some quickly grow tired of one band and move to another or they rotate around almost like it's "who's available for this date? there are so many good choices". what amazed me about seeing Previte in person was that having not paid much attention to Zorn , Downtown, et al , back in the 80s, and only discovering his music last year and having never seen him in person, i figured him well under 40. on stage, he looked as lithe and muscular as any endurance athlete in their 20s, not an ounce of fat ... he played the kit like an athlete, dexterity with the sticks seemed as natural to him as breathing. turn off the sound and i'd still figure him as having amazing technique on the skins. the next day i looked him up and although his web page isn't saying, various sources have him at between 47 and 51 huh?! he's like one of these people who theoretically can't exist.

When the audience crowds into the Mystic Theatre in Petaluma on Friday night (May 19) or The Independent in San Francisco on Saturday night (May 20) to hear The Coalition of the Willing, chances are that many will be unfamiliar with the all-star band's leader, virtuoso drummer and composer Bobby Previte. He may be something of a household name to cutting-edge jazz fans whose record collections contain works by John Zorn, Elliott Sharp, Marty Ehrlich, Wayne Horvitz and the New York Composers Orchestra. But while Previte's name appears above the title on the new Coalition of the Willing CD, it's the drawing power of guitarist Charlie Hunter, saxophonist Skerik and organist Marco Benevento that guarantees him a hearing outside of regulation jazz venues. "I'm skirting another scene where people don't know anything about me," Previte granted in a recent phone call from New York City. "That's one of the exciting things about it." The scene that Previte is breaking into appreciates jazz -- when it provides the improvisational freedom for musicians to exercise chops steeped in rock, R&B, funk and bluegrass. When, that is, it's part of a genre-busting jam-band aesthetic. Bay Area-raised Hunter, Seattle-based Skerik and New Jersey-bred Benevento are stars of various statures on the jam-band circuit, though each transcends even that loosey-goosey category. Hunter, known for his seven- and eight-string jazz-guitar prowess, boasts a long, big-league resume that includes Garage a Trois with Skerik and drummer Stanton Moore (of the popular New Orleans funk-jam band Galactic). Skerik's credits include Critters Buggin, the avant-fusion band Ponga and his new five-horn Syncopated Taint Septet. Benevento is best known for his improvising rock-fusion duo with drummer Joe Russo. For the 48-year-old Previte, what's most important about these guys is that, musically, they cook. "I wanted to put together a working band that rocks," he declared in a conversation that took place after he cleaned up a coffee disaster in his kitchen and while he prepared himself a fresh cup. The Coalition of the Willing rocks with a vengeance. On the CD, fresh out on the Ropeadope label, Previte, Hunter and Skerik are joined by organist-bassist Jamie Saft, trumpeter Steven Bernstein and guitarist-harmonica player Stew Cutler. The keyboards are as weighty as anything this side of The Band or Deep Purple, and Hunter, playing a six-string electric guitar (rather than his usual jazz ax), ranges into raunchy rock-blues sounds few have ever heard from him, while Previte channels heavy-metal thunder into his Max Roach-like precision. "More and more, I've been going back to my roots," Previte explained. "And that's really my roots -- the first music I played was soul and rock." When told that the opening moments of "The Ministry of Truth," the first track on The Coalition of the Willing, was reminiscent of The Band's "Chest Fever," Previte broke into an expletive-laced rant of praise: "Oh, man, the f--ing Band, man, you just said the magic F-word, dude. The f--ing Band! You can just forget about everybody else. I won't even try to put myself in even the same sentence as the Band. I remember very well hearing 'Chest Fever' on the radio the first time. What?! It just crashed the car radio speaker! It was just amazing!" But Previte's musical studies took him in a different direction than his awestruck reaction to Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson and company might have suggested. At the University at Buffalo (SUNY), where he majored in percussion under Jan Williams, the music department faculty also included Morton Feldman and John Cage. Then, as he puts it in his online biography, he "ran head on into Miles Davis, Edgard Varèse, Charles Mingus, Terry Reilly, Abstract Expressionism, Igor Stravinsky, Frank Lloyd Wright, George Balanchine and William Faulkner. That was that." In 1979, Previte moved to New York City, where he fell in with the "downtown" scene, recorded with John Zorn, Tom Waits, Marty Ehrlich and others, and began recording his own bands -- Bump; Empty Suits; Weather Clear, Track Fast; Latin for Travelers. As composer, Previte has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts and Meet the Composer, and he has made his groups vehicles for his original music. "I started composing because I had a band and we needed music," he said. "One advantage was that I could write music and have it played immediately, and I could hear it. Unfortunately, it wasn't a symphony, or I would be a very skilled symphonic composer now. That's really the deal: You write music and you hear it back -- bang! Then you know, this works and this doesn't work. This instrument does this pretty well, but it really doesn't do this very well. Or this instrument sounds like this in this octave, or these instruments together sound like this- -- but what if I flipped them and put this one under that one? You can't learn all that out of the book. You learn just by doing. "No one ever told me how to write music or critiqued it, except for the band," Previte continued. "I was just writing music and getting it played, and, little by little, I came upon whatever I'm doing now. It's a little like I grew up in a cave and was unsullied by everything else. I think that has helped me define my own vision clearly. I'm kind of in my own space." Currently, Previte's is growing -- with a new DVD of solo electronics, Dialed In, made with video artist Benton-C Bainbridge, and an ambitious new collaborative project called "The Separation" (as in "of church and state"), with writer Andrea Kleine, filmmaker Anna Kiraly and an adaptation of Guillaume Dufay's 15th century Missa Sancti Jacobi, "rearranged as Coalition music, which is probably going to take a little bit more of a metal direction." "Coalition of the Willing is a band that I want to keep going for as long as I possibly can," Previte noted. "This is my new loudspeaker to shout out from. I love doing all these projects, but the Coalition is going to be my working band, my get-in-the-trenches band. It just rocks so hard and it's got my stuff, too." The Coalition emerged from the network of relationships Previte cultivated over the past 20 years. He met Skerik through keyboardist Wayne Horvitz (and the three played together as Ponga). Skerik, among others, hipped him to Charlie Hunter. "I just called him up and said, 'Let's play.' I had just been getting into electronic drums at the time, and when Charlie and I played together, it was enlightening. It's a duo, but it's really a quartet -- in Charlie we've got the bass player and the guitar player; with me we've got the drummer and the electronics guy." As Groundtruther, Previte and Hunter have invited a variety of third players to join in. "We have the basics so down," Previte said, "that no matter who we got, they could fly on top of us or inside us, or anything they wanted to do." Once they added Skerik and Jamie Saft (on the record) or Benevento (for the tour), The Coalition of the Willing was born. "I wanted to put together a band that had all my things in it," Previte explained, "whatever my things are -- composition and tunes and a tough edge." Composition is rarely a strong suit in jam-band circles. But for Previte it's critical. In 2002, John Zorn's Tzadik label released Previte's The 23 Constellations of Joan Miró, 23 musical "miniatures" based on Miró's "Constellation" paintings and scored for harp, two trumpets, soprano sax, bass clarinet, flute, percussion, piano/celesta, organ/electronics and accordion. For all its "chamber" qualities, Previte sees Constellations as a companion piece to The Coalition of the Willing. "In my mind, these two records are very close, simply because they are more consistent than anything else I've ever done," he said. "Stylistically, even though they are 'wildly different,' I feel they're linked." And in his current band, Previte makes sure another link -- between composition and improvisation -- is reinforced. "I have learned the lesson of how to play music live, which is very different than making a record," he explained. "I'm too much of a control freak, but now I understand perfectly well that the function is to subvert -- subvert, subvert, subvert. And you must subvert your own music, too. That's the only way to play music live. When I'm working with younger musicians, I tell them, you must be the composer -- you must listen to everything that goes down as a composer, as an orchestrator, as if you're sitting with your pencil, at your desk, looking out the window and you're writing a symphony, and then you think, 'OK, now, this section, what do I want to hear there?' Let's say you're the guitarist and you think, 'This section would be great but I don't want to hear the guitar,' then you don't play the guitar. You stop, which you can only do if you're out of yourself and into the music." As a drummer-bandleader, like such jazz icons as Art Blakey and Max Roach, Previte exerts a commanding influence on the musicians who share the stage with him. "You have to be present," he explained. "I will not allow people not to be present. I like to give everybody that feeling of absolute abandon, but it's not about 'Here's my solo and now I'm going to sit back and listen to Charlie rip.' That's not it. You have to truly listen to the music you're playing -- you're involved every second, and you can make decisions every second. You can subvert the chart, you can come in blasting and you can bury everybody -- if it's strong enough and it's cool and you do it with conviction. That's the kind of thing that should happen live, and it does in my band because I make sure that it happens."

On the web, it seems like it's a classic case of love it or hate it regarding this band. Here are some of the extremes: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000F4RHO...5Fencoding=UTF8 Previte on the above alluded topic that he's reinventing himself ( successful or not is for the listener to decide, I guess ) : http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=17798 the good: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=21279 the bad: http://www.oregonlive.com/entertainment/or...coll=7#continue the ugly: http://www.cloudsandclocks.net/concert_rev.../Previte_E.html All I can say is that if you're lucky enough to be able to see this band live, go see them. You will most probably form your own strong conclusions, but whatever they might be, it's worth the risk not to miss music you might find to be the first to be truly new in a very long time.

I'm probably driving to Santa Cruz tomorrow night. You gotta figure there's a chance it won't last ... as with anything this good.

Walking into The Independent Sat night as quiet and low key as it were ... the total casualness ... the usual dope passed around ... the crowd a truly eclectic mix, yes, in terms of age but, far more interestingly, in terms of where life had pulled them ... but nonetheless, for the most part, true believers : a fact that became more and more apparent as the night evolved ... a reminder of what you can easily forget about San Francisco if you've been here too long. I do not believe anyone was prepared for what was about to happen on stage. The CD is unique ... a new music ... a message to mankind from the heart ... fascinating , beautiful , haunting, overwhelming ... a call to action as the Orwellian quote implies ... ... but the studio and live recordings I had heard are only the barest hints as to where this crew will take you in person. It was beyond anything I did or even could have imagined -- and I think most there felt the same. This is truly a live band on the highest order ... their intercommunication with each other and the audience can only fly to the ethereal statosphere as it did in a context where the all but a miniscule fraction of the outside world can successfully be negated. The energy , the commuication , was truly transcendental, extracting you from your body and your life until you see it all ... your childhood, the alternate pathways you might have travelled, how you truly exist right now -- as opposed to the rationalizations and hopes upon which you pin your daily ability to survive ...... and ultimately I saw clearly into the future : myself as a very old man, when most of my time had gone and my ability to change anything about myself or to do anything of meaning greatly diminished ... when all that is left are memories and ghosts. The personal challenge confronting the audience to see themselves , to escape themselves for the moment , to rise above the pointlessness of material existence in an evil predatory capitalist society .... this challenge almost overshadowed the love that Hunter Skerik Benevento Previte have for this music and the love they have of communicating with each other. All four are creators of such capability as to render irrelevant whatever metrics some might deploy to describe mastery of an instrument, or historical knowledge of music forms and genres ... ... they exist in a space where all musical ideas come together into one and can been seen as of the single origin as they truly are ! This is what music is all about ... four cats digging the raw human communication so much that their vibe becomes hopelessly infectious ... you start grinning , smiling , laughing because it's so fucking amazing that in a world as cunning in its coldness and heartlessness as this one that someone could have found a way out ... a beautiful way out. I'm not sure anyone made it through to the end sober, as was my unrealized intention. No doubt, if this band lasts, there will be those who will come to criticize it for extreme electronics and noise inextricably linked to hallucinogens and altered states ... to which my only response would be that if you're hit square on with the real message exploding from this band , it is nearly impossible to manage the intensity of the experience without tripping on something ... maybe if you're lucky enough to be in love at the moment ... but, otherwise ... As scary as it was beautiful , a terrifying reminder that what you believe in is all you are. Love and Truth. The Ministry Of Love. The Ministry Of Truth. That is all there is.

Sasha's quite a talent on the horn. the times i've seen him with Holland he didn't get much improv space because a evolving master was onboard ... Mr. Duane Eubanks. also, his relative obscurity for his age might be due to his well-deserved rep as one of the better lead men around, so maybe that's what rings the phone. in that regard, kind of reminds me of Lew Soloff in his younger years. i like Sasha's improv style quite a bit. he did a euro tour late last year with Josh Roseman and i've heard some of that live stuff recorded at Zawinul's Birdland. very nice. and I'm always happy to see more Russians and Eastern Europeans in jazz. they're such incredible people, so many coming from many generations of poverty and hardship. every Russian i meet in my profession has a story. the latest here from Moscow University with a masters in computer science. him and his wife had to deliver pizzas for two years ( ! ) before he could find a green card sponsor at a legit firm.

this is more true of Hub in the 80s, especially live. 70s, I think most of the pyrotechnics were very well used. Hub pretty much invented lip slurring up and down the chromatic and other scales. not even Maynard was doing it like that. and it wasn't a gimmick, it was an expression that could not otherwise be expressed. later, in the 80s, when Hub stopped practicing, he would fall back on a lot of this (by then) junk, but there's so many ups and downs in the man's career mid-70s onwards ... drop in an ocean. as far as raw trumpet... have you listened recently to the live Red Clay (with Cobham not White and Turrentine not Henderson) ... Hub's 2nd improv is mind-boggling. the mix of seamless groove, timing, and raw emotion makes it an eternal statement on the horn. the man was ON. if you want ideas, i'm not sure 70s Hub is the place to look. i like Freddie's style all-around on these dates ... but where it's really at is Hub & Co. taking you off into another world ! Mr. Clean and Cold Turkey are some of the hippest chill ever cooked. Red Clay, Straight Life, Keep Your Soul Together, First Light, Sky Dive ... i've never stopped listening to any of these for 25 years. i also disagree that Hub overshadowed his bandmates on the CTIs. it's standard practice for a leader to take more improv time. Henderson in particular lays down some of the most fascinating rapidly metamorphosizing lines in his career. the way Joe was playing in the early 70s was revolutionary in my opinion. not even Wayne was floating out endless segments of self-finishing ideas that continue to spiral around you as you're enticed onwards in the hippest most unpredictable other directions like Joe was at that time. i wish i could find more live stuff from that period. i prefer it to electric Miles.

just reading an Amazon review of the only Sco I don't own, last year's "That's What I Say" Ray tribute. that album had more than a few detractors piling on from all directions. anyway what caught my eye was the following take on Sco's style ... "There is a pervasive weakness that mars the whole works, however, and that weakness is basically Scofield. His meandering "fishing expedition" solos often make one wonder whether he knows where he wants to go. The most egregious and obvious example of this is on the brief "Crying Time." Larry Goldings lays down a wonderful bed of nearly legit organ, and Scofield noodles over the top as though he's looking for something but having a hard time finding it. Scofield rarely 'speaks' in discernable phrases -- I know, that's his style. But it's not my cup of tea, and it doesn't make for a good 'fit' on Ray's stuff. " for a split second, I totally dismissed this as coming from someone who hasn't really listened to John. but thinking about it ... actually this Amazonian has a legit point. i guess it's the first time i realized that Sco frequently does "scout the sonic landscape", happening upon fractals, exploring their permutations only until they morph into another. on these types of Sco improvs, there are no repeated and elaborated motifs ... no lyrical crescendos ... no ever-more-quickly approaching horizon of emotional catharsis in the great post-hard-bop tradition. next i realized that perhaps such fractals are one reason i like Sco so much. because so much of life is actually like that. how often do you properly size your bets pre-flop ? how often do you get a good enough read on any new relationship, work or personal or romantic or whatever, to feel that you can take the nice pot odds apparently offered to you ? how often do you feel confident that your all-in is the correct and only option ? how often are you just exploring the possibilities in the context of your own memories ... never making a move. finally, i quickly remembered that the fractal Scolarsystem does not encompass John's playing, unless you have only limited exposure. the 3 nights i saw the Tony Williams tribute session, the energy and synnergy were masterfully built up to volcanic yet cohesive climaxes. whatever propels this group do what it does so well, they've got a road map ... not a gps, and not a bunch of cafe napkins and pen either ... but a hand-drawn road map -- pencilled, erased, and re-pencilled in masterful detail from long experience.

ropeadope comes through this week with the double , the Giro and the Tour ... cmblat+bptcotw ... just add epo and recombinate as suits your mood http://store.ropeadope.com/dframesetmainpr...=17&product=324 http://store.ropeadope.com/dframesetmainpr...=17&product=325 those who dug McBride disc 2 and wonder if Yanow has far too many reviews to write to find time to listen to extended jams (?) , and who'd like to order up some Scheinman and a 612 slide of Hunter : Bobby and Charlie , building on their deep-space duos (and the pioneering work of vintage 68 ManU - long live Georgie) have carved out a new direction in music with The Coalition Of The Willing. ropeadope's calling it an "instrumental rock masterpiece" ... which tells me nothing. my ears tell me Hunter isn't playing much jazz or any B3 synth (Saft the man). on many numbers Hunter tunes like many a classic blues session but with pure straight eights ... Dick Dale on x? others its acidslide Hawaii !?! on one it's freakin' Hendrixative tripped-out Mileselectric -- smoothly interruptive metal licks no extra charge. (i wonder if Page, Slash , Iommi , Eddie are listening ... naaah) Previte the catalyzing groovemaster on drums and percussion. throw in harmonica, slide trumpet, tenor sax, trombone , primarily in supporting roles but Bernstein and especially Skerik slip in with some quality improv time. surf meets reggae meets Hendrix meets classic blues meets Brownian funkmotion meets Southern slide-harmonica something (!) meets ambient/trance (in no particular order I can figure) ... all cooked-up with the latest in electronica and some of the best in acoustic sounds. nearly indescribable, try as I might ... and it might be even more undefinable live (anyone caught a show yet ?) and Scheinman , she well works her magic on Amendola's "Believe" , navigating another New World in music : http://www.scottamendola.com/discog_scottb...ieve_frame.html yeah Christian ! audience noise is good ! pump it up bro ! time for a Tonic West ... if necessary don your spacesuits to visit the alternate sushinotiverse. how bout "Noshis" ? just say noshis.