Artist.......: Benny Reid
Album........: Escaping Shadows
Label........: Concord Music Group
Genre........: Jazz
Catnr........: CJA 31017-02
source.......: CDDA
rip.date.....: Jan-25-2010
str.date.....: Sep-15-2009
quality......: VBR/44,1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url..........: www.bennyreid.com
track title time
01. The Final Chapter 05:14
02. Five Years Later 04:16
03. Sleeping Beauty 05:22
04. Facing the Edge 04:58
05. New Days 05:32
06. The Most Beautiful Girl I Ever Knew 08:05
07. Firelight 06:20
08. Cutting 06:46
09. Always and Forever 03:19
10. Escaping Shadows 08:57
Runtime 58:49 min
Size 79,4 MB
Release Notes:
Young alto saxophonist Benny Reid offers a peculiar
mix of contemporary jazz flavored by throwback
fusion elements on this, his second major-label
effort. Synthesizers and unbalanced dynamics
overwhelm or underscore his otherwise pleasant and
literate horn, while this batch of originals pays
no small homage to the late-'70s music of Pat
Metheny. Singsong melodies, the wordless vocals of
Jeff Taylor on five tracks (sounding very much like
Mark Ledford or Mark Winkler), plus the acoustic
and electric guitar of Richard Padron distracts
from what otherwise could be catchy music. There's
little need to sweeten the pot with accompaniment
that is unnecessary at best, and unappealing at
worst. Perhaps producer Chris Dunn can be directly
blamed for the music choices and accompaniment Reid
was coerced into.
The opening number, strangely, is "The Final
Chapter," but alludes to the rest of the album's
added-on layers that take away from Reid's tuneful
playing. "New Days" provides a firmer lyricism,
with Metheny's "Always & Forever" sporting a better
balance in lower mezzo piano volume levels, while
the straight funk of "Five Years Later" more
certainly echoes the skyscraper approach of
Metheny. Padron's electric guitar is simply too
loud, rubbing the music the wrong way as he clashes
against the softer tones of "Firelight" until it
eventually speeds up to a fast road song mode. The
clashing of snaky lines versus a tapped-out rhythm
during "Sleeping Beauty" simply does not work well,
while the plodding rhythms of "Cutting" mismatches
retro fusion and current-day values, but not in a
good way. "New Days" is a pensive waltz, but sounds
dated, and hardly updated or fresh, while swelling
oceanic waves of sound dominate the title track,
enjoyable but copped. To its credit, thank
goodness, this music does not resort to the
so-called "smooth jazz" wallpaper-cotton-candy
formulaic tripe. It seems Reid is standing directly
in the shadows of his predecessors rather than
emerging from them. This is a disappointing
recording, with only hints of an urban or urbane
style, from a clearly talented artist who should
make future inroads as he comes of age.