Search - Charlie Mariano :: Deep in a Dream

Like coming home after a long journey

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 03/07/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Is there a place for just plain beautiful instrumental jazz today? With the deconstructionist tendencies of outfits like The Bad Plus, Craig Taborn's trio, and EST getting so much attention, one wonders. Don't get me wrong; I appreciate these (post)modernists as much as the next guy. But I also think there's room for lovingly rendered standards.Houston Person has been doing it quite successfully on his last four records, as have Ron Carter and David "Fathead" Newman. Enter Charlie Mariano, erstwhile jazz pioneer, experimenter, and sojourner to such far off places as South East Asia and India. When Matthias Winkelmann, producer and co-founder of the German label Enja, approached Mariano with the idea of doing an album of standards in a traditional piano-bass-drums-alto setting, he was ready for it. In a way, it's almost like coming home for the 79-year-old alto sax player who has a long history--it almost seems like in a former life--of playing standards. Linked up with an exceptional rhythm section and some (generally) under-recorded standards, the results are entire enjoyable, if not revolutionary. Mariano is in excellent form, walking a fine line between getting genuine sentiment out of these romantic ballads and keeping from slipping into sentimentality. His tone, bright, slightly pinched, has a remarkable range of expression. His band mates, Bob Degen on piano, Isla Eckinger on bass, and Jarrod Cagwin on drums, a marvelously fluid unit, provide the exact right backing for Mariano. Cagwin--a name new to me--especially proves invaluable with perfect timing, coloration, and just a hint of the exotic.All in all, a very creditable set, certainly worth checking out."