Artist.......: Dave Douglas
Album........: Meaning And Mystery
Label........: GreanLeaf Music
Genre........: Jazz
Catnr........: GRE04
source.......: CDDA
rip.date.....: Jun-18-2006
str.date.....: Feb-01-2006
quality......: VBR/44,1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url..........: www.davedouglas.com
track title time
01. Painters's Way 05:29
02. Culture Wars 12:46
03. The Sheik Of Things To Come 07:45
04. Blues To Steve Lacy 05:55
05. Tim Bits 05:32
06. Twombly Infinites 02:29
07. Elk's Club 05:41
08. Invocation 07:54
09. The Team 07:46
Runtime 61:17 min
Size 90,0 MB
Release Notes:
About the artist ..........
Two-time Grammy-nominated trumpeter Dave Douglas is
arguably the most original trumpeter/composer of
his generation. From his New York base, where he
has lived since the mid 1980s, he has earned lavish
national and international critical acclaim,
including trumpeter, composer, and jazz "Artist of
the Year" by such organizations as the New York
Jazz Awards, Down Beat, Jazz Times, Jazziz, and the
Italian Jazz Critics' Society. His solo recording
career began in 1993 with Parallel World on the
Soul Note label and he has since released
twenty-two CDs. In 2005, after seven
critically-acclaimed albums for the Bluebird/RCA
label, he launched his own label, Greenleaf Music.
He was also honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship
that same year. His current release, Meaning and
Mystery (April 11), features his working quintet of
Uri Caine, James Genus, Clarence Penn and Donny
McCaslin.
About the album ..........
Meaning and Mystery is the third album from the
Dave Douglas Quintet and first for the Greenleaf
Music label. It follows 2004's critically-acclaimed
Strange Liberation and 2002's Grammy-nominated The
Infinite in building upon, and establishing a
modern living jazz quintet music. Inspired by Miles
Davis, the current work of the Wayne Shorter
Quartet as well as more obscure groups such as
those led by Julius Hemphill and Baikida Carroll to
name a few, the album's nine enthralling Douglas
compositions reflect Douglas' fasciation with the
worlds of poetry, visual arts, architecture, dance
and film. Except for tenor saxophonist Donny
McCaslin, who joined the Quintet in 2005, each
member of the group have played with Douglas for an
extended period of time. Uri Caine, who plays
Fender Rhodes with the group, has been with Douglas
for fifteen years, bassist James Genus for over ten
years and drummer Clarence Penn for over six years.
Each group member is a master musician with a clear
and distinctive voice; Douglas wouldn't have it any
other way. "I like to hear individual expression,
even in a group setting," says Douglas. "I tried to
write songs that could be approached with - that
invite - personality, expressiveness, immediacy."
With Meaning and Mystery, he has accomplished this
goal and delivered an album of astonishing
virtuosity and artistic vision.
In allmusic.com ..........
Dave Douglas has been involved in a number of
projects over recent years that have kept his fine
quintet from recording since 2002. Meaning and
Mystery showcases the band -- Douglas on trumpet,
Uri Caine on Fender Rhodes, bassist James Genus,
and drummer Clarence Penn -- with its first
personnel change as tenor saxophonist Donny
McCaslin replaces Chris Potter, whose own star is
rising and is too busy to maintain a constant
presence in the group. McCaslin, who is less well
known, is no less a player. His voice on the horn
is unique, and his phrasing complex and songlike.
"Song for Susannah" begins with a single note
repeated on the trumpet before elaborating on it
enough for the band to enter and dig songlike into
its core in 12/8. Genus is a wonder here, shifting
his solo around the figure, moving in and out of
the lyric as Caine paints the backdrop with Penn,
who plays around and through the time frame, never
losing the band. The standout track here is
"Culture Wars." Douglas has never made bones about
Miles being a huge influence -- he even refers to
it in the liner notes. Obviously, the quintet
format echoes the great inconoclasts as well. But
Douglas moves it into other areas. The open,
relaxed, moody atmosphere of the cut begins slowly,
reminding one -- perhaps because of Caine's Rhodes
playing -- of Davis' In a Silent Way, particularly
when the simple groove takes over. Genus' ostinato
is infectious, chantlike, hypnotic. Douglas' solo
leads off, and he swoops in and out at will,
playing all around the simple 4/4 time before the
song -- like heat -- rises. When McCaslin slides in
with his solo, one can hear his own sense of deep
lyricism, his attention to mode, and an authority
that is all his own -- though one can hear the
labyrinthine exploration of Wayne Shorter in his
voicings as well. Likewise, Caine's solo -- full of
nuance and color -- is strong, bringing a new focus
to the Fender Rhodes in the current era. Other
standout cuts include the cool blues nod to Tim
Berne in "Tim Bits," the knotty "The Sheik of
Things to Come," and the beautiful and simply
melodic and airy "Blues to Steve Lacy." In the
latter half, the shifting stop-and-start figures in
"Elk's Club" that mix blues and bop with humor are
wonderful. "The Team" is another blues, through a
fractured one, also possessed of great warmth and
some hard-swinging modal approaches woven into the
hard bop frame. Meaning and Mystery is yet another
album in the Douglas catalog that showcases his
fine compositional and arrangement abilities, but
more than this, it's the sound of a group in the
process of continued restless development long
after the bandmembers have found their collective
voice.
Enjoy it and remember ... if u like it, buy it !