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| CD Reviews | Feature | Reviews & Features Archive | Photo Archive | Contact | MWE3 Home |
| Email: Info@mwe3.com |
Copyright ©2000-2002 MWE3.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
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Bass
ace Tony Levin is best known for his incredible years of work with King
Crimson as well as his legendary session work with Peter Gabriel and John
Lennon to name just a couple. Levin’s first solo outing for Narada delves into his vast background, distilling an incredible
amalgam of modern, bass-driven instrumental musics. Levin’s rock solid
bass work and appealing musical excursions provides the perfect backdrop
for top support work from players like Jerry
Marotta (drums), Artie Traum (co-producer),
keyboard great David Sancious and
electronic music icon Larry Fast.
The album also features a variety of electric and acoustic guitar
accompaniment from Jeff Pevar, The
California Guitar Trio and David
Torn. Alternately electrifying and soothing, Waters
Of Eden is aptly described by Levin
as being ‘eclectic instrumental’. Part New Age, part fusion and
part progressive instrumental rock, the album maintains an appealing
groove from start to finish. 
Levin
has also been quite visible of late thanks to an ongoing series of CD
releases on his own Woodstock, N.Y.-based Papa
Bear Records. A couple of years back, the label released the
self-titled debut album from Bruford
Levin Upper Extremities (BLUE). Featuring Tony Levin (bass, stick), Bill
Bruford (electronic percussion, drums), David Torn
(guitars) and Chris Botti (trumpet),
the quartet recently released a double disc live set of music distilled
from a number of recent BLUE shows entitled BLUE
Nights. A feast of skillfully recorded progressive instrumental music
showcasing how well these ingenious musicians perform live together, BLUE
Nights contains numerous photos and excerpts from Levin’s ongoing
road diaries. As far as improvised ambient jazz-fusion goes, it doesn’t
get any better than BLUE Nights. 
For
acoustic guitar fans into progressive and classical guitar musics, it just
doesn’t get any better than the first album of 2000 by the foremost
acoustic guitar trio performing today. In fact, there isn’t much that
misses the collective ear of The California Guitar Trio. After five
albums, CGT have just released a lush sounding adventurous live album that
is a confirmation of their unyielding creativity. Meeting in Europe at a
late ‘80s guitar craft seminar conducted by prog-rock icon and King
Crimson founder Robert Fripp,
the merger of the CGT resulted in an extremely high level of virtuosity
and creative awareness. What other acoustic guitar trio, no matter how
gifted and clever, would dare to cover music by Beethoven, Mussorgski,
Ellington and surf-rock icon Dick Dale all within the span of a live show?
Recorded at various locations throughout the U.S., Rocks
The West also features the great King Crimson bass/stick player Tony
Levin on a number of tracks. In fact, one of the highlights here is
the CGT / Levin performance of the sublime, pastoral title track of
Tony’s new solo album Waters Of Eden. As good as the nearly nine minute CGT version of
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 is, the album’s highlight is the CGT’s
sterling cover of “Bohemian Rhapsody” from glam-rockers Queen. An unlikely choice, yet the track proves to be the defining
moment on the CD. After five albums together, Bert Lams, Paul Richards and
Hideyo Moriya continue to
delight and amaze audiences with their eclectic instrumental brand of
acoustic guitar wizardry. 
A
showcase for some of the finest instrumental rock guitarists currently on
the planet, Guitarapalooza Vol. 1 compiles
16 cuts of masterful and quite intense modern instrumental music. Started
back in 1987 as a newsletter by guitarist Jaye
Foucher, Guitarapalooza continues on in the 21st Century as an e-zine
and now breaks new ground with their first CD release. Guitar fans into
fusion or instrumental heavy metal music are well advised to hunt down the
recently released Guitarapalooza
Vol. 1. Guitarists featured on the CD include Adrian
Galysh, Jennifer Batten, Jaye
Foucher and Steve Booke to name a few. Predominantly instrumental-based hard
rock, the CD is rounded out by some stunning acoustic and Latin-tinged
jazz-rock fusion tracks. Highlighting some of the finest up-and-coming
guitarists on the scene today, Guitarapalooza
Vol. 1 is a splendid spin in it’s own right and also serves as an
introduction to a valuable web site for guitar devotees. 
The
place where funk, rock, jazz, classical and New Age musics meet is the
place where you’ll find keyboard wizard Bernie Worrell. A legend in the
music world since the late ‘60s, Worrell was a prime component in
classic funk bands like Funkadelic and Parliament. Hundreds of album
sessions with just about everybody from The Talking Heads and Jack Bruce
to Keith Richards and The Golden Palominos secured Worrell's reputation
years ago. A mixture of solid funk, freewheeling rock and New Age-flavored
classical instrumentals, Free Agent is
one of Worrell’s most far-out sounding studio albums to date. Like the
astral cover art adorning the CD, the music on Free
Agent is like a magical trip to an other worldly place. Appearing on
Worrell’s latest studio extravaganza are some top sidemen including
guitarists Dominic Kanza, Buckethead,
Bill Laswell and Jean
Pierre Sluys. If you’ve never imagined that spatial instrumental
funk could be merged with classical and New Age rock music you’ve got to
check out Free Agent by The
Wizard Of Woo himself: Bernie Worrell. Bernie has also recently released a
live album with his group The Woo Warriors. 
The
latest album from the avant-gard guitar-heavy trio Kiln takes the spirit
of the early ‘80s instrumental guitar group Love Tractor and blows it
skyward into orbit. A most unique ensemble indeed, Kiln describes their
1999 CD Amday as ‘signals
painstakingly propelled though a series of cheap boxes and wires’.
That’s possibly the way Rod Serling might have described them but all
joking aside, Kiln’s latest could be tagged as experimental avant-gard
pop instrumentals from the twilight zone - sort of The Ventures meets King
Crimson. Despite a propensity to zone out way over the top, Kiln also
makes music that is often downright relaxing, hypnotic and at times quite
tuneful. Trying to label the guitar heavy instrumentals on Ampday
is like trying to describe a dream you had. You can understand it, but
just try to explain it. A dazzling collaboration between the
multi-talented Kevin Hayes, Kirk
Marrison and Clark Rehberg III,
Ampday sizzles with an aura of rare originality and will inspire
fans of all things progressive and all things guitar. 
A
virtuoso of modern electric and acoustic guitar techniques, Adrian Galysh
is certainly off to a bright start on his debut solo CD entitled Venusian
Sunrise. Produced and performed entirely by Galysh, Venusian
Sunrise demonstrates the guitarist’s ability to pair memorable
melodies with kinetic moods and arrangements. In Adrian’s own words,
“On all my tunes I wanted to include instrumentation besides the guitar.
I incorporated strings, piano and various percussion to the compositions.
For some of the pieces the results were powerful and lush, others were
simple and understated.” The nine track instrumental disc clocks in at
just under a half hour, yet it’s filled with a number of noteworthy
tracks. Case in point is the luminous “So Close...So Far”, which is
the perfect showcase for his electrifying guitar work. From the symphonic
overture of the lead-off title track, to the pastoral acoustic-tinged
“Lullaby Of South Aiken St.” and the melodic progressive fusion
flavors of “Drifting Memories”, Venusian
Sunrise makes it clear that Adrian Galysh is a significant new arrival
on the jazz and rock guitar scene. Galysh can also be heard on the Guitarapalooza
CD which features his stellar acoustic guitar outing, “The Walls
Inside”. 
Imagine
a guitarist with brains, beauty and enough chops to hold her own alongside
fretboard greats like Morse and Satriani. Relatively unknown compared to
those big guys, Jaye Foucher (pronounced “Foo-shay”) is evidently a
name for instrumental guitar aficionados to know about and her recently
released second solo album goes a long way in solving that dilemma. Her
first teacher/mentor was guitar great Gary Hoey of which Foucher adds,
“Gary really believed in me and encouraged me to follow my dream.”
Graduating from the acclaimed GIT back in ‘89, Ms. Foucher has gone a
long way towards breaking into the guitar mainstream. Like another great
female guitarist instrumentalist, Jennifer Batten, Ms. Foucher excels in
creating dynamic hard rock and neo-progressive jazz fusion instrumentals
featuring her dazzling electric and acoustic guitar skills. Supported by John
Vittori (bass) and Matt
Scurfield (drums), Contagious
Grooves serves up quite a breakneck jaunt and, despite an (at times)
emphasis on guitar pyrotechnics over melody, there’s plenty of fireworks
on hand to blow away the most seasoned heavy metal rocker. Ms. Foucher was
also instrumental in creating the famed Guitarapalooza web site which
provides valuable information on a gamut of veteran and up-and-coming
guitar figures. Foucher’s first album Infectious
Licks also makes for some exhilarating listening. 
A
groovy album from two musicians from two different music generation, Stop
The Panic is a cosmic jam session featuring U.K. pedal steel guitar
great BJ Cole and ‘90s dance
music trendsetter Luke Vibert.
Cole’s legacy goes way back to his early ‘70s recording sessions with
John Cale and Marc Bolan. Turned on to Vibert by hip-hop and ambient music
expert David Toop, Cole soon
approached Vibert about recording together. Vibert thought it would be
great fun and proceeded to merge the magic of Cole’s steel guitar adding
a healthy dose of drum and bass and trip hop programming. Cole describes
Vibert as being “like a young Mozart, sitting at home churning out
fantastic ideas” and Vibert reciprocating with “BJ’s so open to
anything”. Judging from his playful guitar work and obvious appreciation
for Vibert’s dance groove nirvana, Cole gleefully takes part in some
genre smashing musical fun. Toop sums it up when he says that there’s
not many musical styles that aren’t heard here. Cole may say that the
album’s approach is, “we sit around getting stoned together -
everything flows from there”, but there’s definitely a method to the
madness that is Stop The Panic.
An intergalactic Hawaiian hip hop jam, Stop
The Panic is a relaxing and trendsetting spin for open minded dance
groovers, New Ager’s and steel guitar fans alike. 
Some of
the most heavenly classical music of all time was written by 20th Century
French composer Erik Satie. For
his latest solo guitar venture the great Steve
Hackett teams with his brother, flautist John Hackett for a new tribute CD to Satie’s ever popular
minimalist classical music. The original guitarist in the ‘70s prog-rock
band Genesis, Steve has
recorded various classical-flavored guitar albums on his own including the
1997 release of A Midsummer
Night’s Dream for guitar and orchestra. In the Sketches
liner notes Steve points out that the music of Satie was way ahead of
it’s time and a major influence as well on the classical, jazz, ambient
genres as well as a wealth of other ‘atmospheric’ musics over the
years. Even those unfamiliar with these exquisite musical morsels may
remember several of Satie’s beautifully sculpted melodies which have
regained popularity in recent times. Hackett describes the difficulties in
adapting his classical guitar to accommodate the wide range of Satie’s
complicated harmonies, yet after hearing Sketches
Of Satie it’s quite obvious the brothers have succeeded with their
elegant tribute to Satie.