Barry Cleveland has a cool article in the October 2011 issue of Guitar Player on drummer Marco Minnemann's Normalizer 2 project. The project involves various composers who've written their own music over the same 52 minute Minnemann drum solo. Cleveland profiles the Normalizer 2 recordings of Mike Keneally, Alex Machacek (Review), John Czajkowski, Trey Gunn, Jason Sadites, and Phi Yaan-Zek. Check out streaming samples of the albums on Guitar Player's website.
Guitarist Chris Taylor has been around the block a few times. A veteran of the music business for over 30 years, the New York native has written, recorded, and/or performed with artists such as Grover Washington Jr., Lionel Hampton, Randy Brecker and many others. Fusion guitar fans may be familiar with his work with guitarists Ed DeGenaro (Dog House, Less Is Seldom More) and John Czajkowski (West ZooOpolis). Now Taylor has struck out on his own with Nocturnal (Abstract Logix); a stunningly original debut that pushes the boundaries of modern jazz and fusion.
From a harmony perspective, Nocturnal is a jazz record at its core, yet Taylor dresses it heavily with electronica and industrial influences that wash the listener in a cornucopia of sounds and samples. While the use of these textures in jazz fusion is not unprecedented - the music of Uncle Moe’s Space Ranch and Alex Machacek comes to mind - Taylor’s thoroughly integrated application of these ideas in a jazz context feels very new. As a result, the whole album hits you as a bold, fresh statement, especially when you consider this is Taylor’s first recording as a leader.
Though Nocturnal is clearly Taylor’s brainchild, he hardly goes it alone here as he is joined by a remarkable lineup of top-shelf musicians including drummers Dave Weckl, Gary Novak, Joel Rosenblatt, Kirk Covington and Tracey Kroll, bassists Ric Fierabracci, Gary Hease and Kevin Freeby, keyboardists George Whitty, John Findlay and Scott Kinsey, saxophonist Steve Tavaglione, and guitarist John Czajkowski. One look at these names should tell you that despite any preconceived notions you may have about terms like “electronica” or “samples,” this is still a players album. It also happens to be one of the most creative records to hit the modern jazz scene in some time.
Taylor’s playing style is quite unique. His solos are peppered with exploratory lines that flow from a strong jazz vocabulary with a heavy ‘outside’ skew, yet he plays with a light attack that forgoes the flash and shred often heard from contemporary fusion guitarists. Imagine a player with the harmonic sense of Allan Holdsworth and the touch of Allen Hinds and you’ll start to get the idea. From the tonal side of things, Taylor generally goes with “stratty” sounds with just enough gain to add some punch without getting too crunchy - the perfect tone to match his dynamic, legato style.
Nocturnal’s opening track “Voices in My Head” gives a strong indication of what’s in store for the rest of the disc. Tavaglione’s prominent sax work and Taylor’s swinging solo create an obvious jazz mood, yet samples and backwards effects are sprinkled throughout the mix to create a sonic landscape that’s as unexpected as it is cutting edge. This “cinematic jazz” approach is utilized throughout the album, though on some tracks, such as the beautiful, eastern-tinged “Nocturnal,” and the hauntingly evocative “Recluse,” Taylor leans more heavily in the “soundscape” direction to create pieces that are more like aural paintings than traditional songs.
Taylor has cited Weather Report as an influence, and “Ear To The Rail” is clearly an homage to that groundbreaking band, and their torch bearers Tribal Tech. The song’s groove and vocal accents strongly reflect the music of Weather Report founding member Joe Zawinul, while Taylor’s solo on this tune is dripping with Scott Henderson-esque blues phrases. Another standout track is “You Know What I’m Saying?” - a great piece of fast modern jazz, again augmented with samples and sound effects to tweak the ear. Taylor takes one of his best solos on the album here, as he strings together one great outside line after another. Tavaglione and keyboardist Scott Kinsey also make great contributions on this piece.
The most straight-laced song on Nocturnal is likely “Green Divided By Blue.” Save for the intro, the sonic effects are held to a minimum on this track in which everyone involved turns in a killer performance. Ric Fierabracci’s stellar fretless playing is a major factor in the overall mood of the song, as is Tavaglione’s great tenor work.
Whereas “Green Divided By Blue” largely eschews the genre bending production devices employed throughout the rest of the album, the next track is practically defined by them. “All Of Us” is a radical mash-up of jazz and electronica that starts off like a spaghetti western-themed rave. George Bush sound bites mingle with driving beats and copious amounts of sampled percussion in a head-spinning industrial techno onslaught, before the song morphs into a slow, simmering blues-inflected groove. Fierabracci really shines on this tune, especially with his licks in the intro. Despite all of that, it’s Taylor’s guitar work that truly defines the song. His understated phrases are the perfect ingredient over the track’s busy production, and the classic vibe effect he employs is the coolest guitar tone on the album.
Some of Taylor’s best playing on Nocturnal can be found on “Bela” - a fantastic tune that features some creepy Bela Lugosi spoken-word samples. Taylor’s solo on this track is arguably his jazziest on the whole record. He not only pours out tons of great lines (some of which reflect a John Scofield influence), but also demonstrates a deft use of volume swells - a technique he employs regularly throughout the disc. Whitty’s keyboard solo on this song is also one the great treats of this album.
“Here To There” is a chimey piece full of arpeggiated guitar parts and swirling backwards sounds that begs the use of headphones to get the full effect. Tavaglione’s use of a harmonica patch for his EWI is a perfect fit here. The deep growling “Odd Hours” closes the album in strong fashion with a Jeff Beck-like low register melody, and killer playing from Tavaglione and drummer Kirk Covington. Things get nasty late in the tune when John Czajkowski comes in with some uber-heavy power chords played on baritone guitar.
With Nocturnal, Taylor, the long time sideman, clearly establishes himself not only as an artist in his own right, but as a highly original voice in modern jazz. Had he not incorporated samples, or any other post-production atmospheric elements, this would still stand as a fine debut full of creativity and depth. By so thoroughly and seamlessly weaving these “non-jazz” textures into his music, however, Taylor brings a fresh vision to the genre that is exciting and innovative. Nocturnal is a captivating release that is hopefully the first of many to come from this fine guitarist and composer. Highly recommended.
Chris Taylor - Nocturnal (Abstract Logix)
Personnel:
Chris Taylor - Guitar, Keyboards, Programming
Dave Weckl, Gary Novak, Joel Rosenblatt, Kirk Covington, Tracey Kroll - Drums
Ric Fierabracci, Gary Hease, Kevin Freeby - Bass
George Whitty, John Findlay, Scott Kinsey - Keyboards
Steve Tavaglione - Saxophone, Woodwinds, EWI
John Czajkowski - Baritone Guitar
Francesca Russo - Voice
Tracklisting:
1. Voices In My Head
2. Ear To The Rail
3. Nocturnal
4. You Know What I’m Saying?
5. Green Divided By Blue
6. All Of Us
7. Bela
8. Recluse
9. Here To There
10. Odd Hours
Looking back over this past year, I really believe 2010 has been the most incredible year in music I've ever experienced. It's certainly been the best year I've seen since I started The Guitar Channel in 2004. On one hand, I've never witnessed as much amazing live music as I have this year. There were the great Winter NAMM gigs (such as OHM w/ Mike Kenneally, Alex Machacek w/ Ric Fierabracci, the Bombastic Meatbats, and more), awesome Chicago gigs by Mike Stern, Allan Holdsworth, and others, and of course the festivals - starting with the incredible Baked Potato 40th Anniversary Jazz Festival in May, the legend-packed Crossroads Guitar Festival in June, and the capper: the amazing New Universe Music Festival last month.
Then of course, there were the great albums of 2010. And there were a lot of them. Here are my favorite albums that were released this year, in no particular order.
Alex Machacek featuring Marco Minnemann - 24 Tales (Review)
A remarkable disc featuring music Machacek composed over a 52-minute Minnemann drum solo.
Michael Landau, Robben Ford, Jimmy Haslip, Gary Novak - Renegade Creation (Review)
Awesome blues rock super group that brings together guitar legends Landau and Ford. Killer playing; amazing guitar tones.
This one came out of nowhere and really grabbed me. Great collection of fusion tunes with a killer guest list that includes Alex Machacek, Jeff Kollman, Greg Koch, Nat Janoff, and many others.
Fantastic old-school jazz rock album from the legendary drummer. Includes guests Jimmy Herring and David Gilmore.
Prashant Aswani - Sonically Speaking (Review)
Tasty, melodic instrumental rock disc with killer playing and writing. Includes guests Brett Garsed and Rob Caggiano.
Bombastic Meatbats featuring Chad Smith - More Meat
Awesome throwback fusion with great grooves. Features Jeff Kollman on guitar.
Charlie Hunter - Public Domain
This may seem like an out-of-left-field choice, but I can't get enough of this album. Features Hunter playing solo versions of old public domain classics chosen by his grandfather.
Other favorites from 2010:
Kirk Fletcher - My Turn
John McLaughlin - To The One (Review)
John Czajkowski and Marco Minnemann - West ZooOpolis
Steve Lukather - All's Well That Ends Well
Tetsuo Sakurai - Vital World (Review)
Ranjit Barot - Bada Boom
Michael Dolce - Everything Til Now
Jeff Richman - Like That (Interview)
See Also:
Favorite Albums of 2009
Favorite Albums of 2008
Favorite Albums of 2007
Favorite Albums of 2006
Randy Allar (from the Fusion Show 89.3 WCSB Cleveland) has interviewed guitarist John Czajkowski for Abstract Logix. John discusses his amazing new album featuring drummer Marco Minnemann - West ZooOpolis.
Here is some stuff I've been digging lately:
John Czajkowski and Marco Minnemann - West ZooOpolis
Czajkowski's contribution to Minnemann's Normalizer 2 project. An amazing piece of work. Highly textured with great melodies and playing.
Alex Machacek featuring Marco Minnemann - 24 Tales (review)
This is Machacek's contribution to Minnemann's above-mentioned project. Remarkable stuff. Look for an interview with Machacek soon.
Great throwback fusion. Guests include Jimmy Herring, David Gilmore, Stanley Clarke and Victor Bailey.
Kurt Rosenwinkel - The Remedy - Live At The Village Vanguard
This one is a couple of years old but I've been listening to it a lot lately. Rosenwinkel is a phenomenal straight-ahead player. Incredible recording.
Lost Tribe (self-titled)
This is long out-of-print but you can find it on eBay. Lost Tribe was a fantastic New York fusion band that featured Adam Rogers and David Gilmore on guitars (who normally play straight-ahead jazz). This is their self-titled debut from 1993 which was produced by Walter Becker. Their follow-up Soulfish is great too.
This just in - guitarist John Czajkowski's West ZooOpolis album (his contribution to drummer Marco Minnemann's Normalizer 2 project) has a May 18th release date. Like the other albums born out of this project, West ZooOpolis features music composed over a 52 minute Minnemann drum solo. Czajkowski gave me a copy of this album a while back, and I can tell you it's a fantastic piece of music; highly textured with a wide variety of guitar tones and mood shifts. Head over to Abstract Logix to hear a sampler MP3.
Other albums featuring music composed over this same Minnemann drum solo include:
Marco Minnemann - Normalizer 2
Touch guitarist Trey Gunn (King Crimson, UKZ) will release a new album entitled Modulator on May 18th, which features music Gunn composed over a 52 minute Marco Minnemann drum solo. Minnemann provided the solo to several musicians to compose their own music over for a massive project entitled Normalizer 2. The results are now being released as stand-alone albums by the various composers. So far, two of these albums are currently available; Alex Machacek's 24 Tales, and Minnemann's own take, simply entitled Normalizer 2. Other versions currently in the pipeline include Mike Keneally's Evidence of Humanity, and John Czajkowski's West ZooOpolis (which I have an advance copy of; great stuff). It will be very interesting to compare and contrast what these often radically different musicians have done with the exact same drum solo.
Saturday was my longest and last day at the NAMM show. I played some great guitars, and met some great musicians including John Czajkowski from Hectic Watermelon, and keyboardist T Lavitz. I also saw two awesome performances at the Eminence Speakers booth - Chris Poland and Pag from OHM, followed by Greg Howe. Later that night, I saw Allan Holdsworth play at Alva's (I'll post about that in more detail tomorrow). Overall, it was an awesome trip, but it feels great to be home. I've been busy since coming back; I just finished uploading and organizing my pics. Check them out:
Winter 2009 NAMM show photo album
See also: my photos from last year's NAMM show
San Diego-based prog-fusion band Hectic Watermelon will be playing a CD release concert at San Diego State University on Dec 14th, with special guest Jerry Goodman on violin. Goodman played on Hectic Watermelon's recently released album "The Great American Road Trip". If you haven't heard this album yet, you'll definitely want to check it out. The writing is great - similar to the Dixie Dregs, only more progressive, and guitarist John Czajkowski is a great player.
You can pick up the album at these locations:
Abstract Logix
Abstrtact Logix Digital Downloads
Amazon
iTunes
