[The Crimson Jazz Trio Download
Addison Mauldin
Musical material is all well known - great King Crimson compositions, just seriously reworked tobecome contemporary jazz pieces ( some vocals are presented as well). All music is more jazz, thanfusion, but excellent compositions make it very interesting, pleasant and accessible listening evenfor those without big love to jazz.Main accents there are atmosphere, acoustic warm sound, melancholic tunes, and great material justfound its new life. Musicians are competent, and happily not demonstrate their technical abilities,but tried to save originals spirit.So -great ,really great result. It's difficult for me to speak about such kind of cover-work asabout masterpiece, but I can just tell that it is possibly greatest of possible re-birth ofprogressive classics.Very recommended - and not only for jazz fans. Without doubt - 4,5! social review comments Review Permalink
Posted Wednesday, April 21, 2010 Review this album Report (Review #278794)
The second and (tragically) last chapter of their re-imagined KC catalogue stretched outeven more than Volume One: interpolating original material, adding vocals, and reunitingdrummer Ian Wallace with his erstwhile Crimson bandmate Mel Collins. Both hadappeared in the 21st Century Schizoid Band, but that was strictly a nostalgia act. Inviting thesax player as a guest to these sessions not only gave the project more legitimacy, butadded instrumental color to the piano-led trio, and a certain poignancy as well.Both CJ3 albums, but this one in particular, offered a glimpse of what Wallace might havecontributed to the court of the Crimson King back in 1971, given half a chance. Older fanscould argue that the band lost something of its original warmth in the harsher climate of theWetton-Buford improvisations, and beyond. But the Jazz Trio succeeded in resuscitating thehuman pulse hidden deep inside the avant-metal heart of later Crimson line-ups.It might sound like straightforward jazz, but because the source material is so eclectic(ranging from the 1969 debut album to the double-trio Thrakking of the mid-1990s) the newmusic becomes likewise harder to pigeonhole. Even if the titles are familiar (and theyshould be, to any self-respecting Crimhead), the experience is like hearing the songs forthe first time."Lament", for example, is more or less faithful to the original melody, with Jody Nardone'spiano substituting for John Wetton's vocals. But the updated "Heartbeat" is a significantdeparture from its "Beat" album forefather, and truer to the spirit of Kerouac and Ginsberg,enough to make me want to trim my goatee and pull on a black turtleneck sweater.The richer arrangement of "Hidden Garden" transforms it into a genuine song, instead ofthe incidental filler on the 1995 "THRAK" album (Nardone does the singing, and with thesame sensitivity as his ivory tickling). And the ambitious 18-minute "Islands Suite" presentsa mostly (I'm guessing) improvised, often free-form interpretation of the opening cuts offthat 1971 LP, almost unrecognizable in this context.The pleasant surprise of the earlier Songbook is missing, of course: this one is merely(and undeniably) pleasant. But it's hard to hear it without a lump in the throat. The albumrepresents the final studio recording of the late Ian Wallace, who succumbed toesophageal cancer shortly after laying down these tracks. The instrumental versionof "Lament", deliberately placed at the end of the album, makes a fitting valedictory. And theclosing fade-out was a nice gesture too, suggesting that the one-time Crimsonpercussionist never stopped swinging his drumsticks. social review comments Review Permalink
Posted Monday, February 11, 2013 Review this album Report (Review #912662)
Le Crimson Jazz Trio est un trio de jazz dont le rpertoire se compose de reprises de King Crimson. Il nat en 2004 autour de l'ex-membre de King Crimson Ian Wallace et sort un album, The King Crimson Songbook, Volume One (2005). Quelques concerts s'ensuivent aux tats-Unis, mais la maladie de Wallace y met rapidement un terme. Il meurt en fvrier 2007, aprs l'enregistrement d'un deuxime album, The King Crimson Songbook, Volume Two, paru en 2009 chez Inner Knot Records.
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