Search - David S. Ware :: Great Bliss, Vol. 2

Not the Best Place to Start

Michael B. Richman | Portland, Maine USA | 08/20/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"David S. Ware is one of the 90s most exciting and original jazz artists. His recent albums for Sony/Columbia should be "essential recordings" for avant-garde jazz, and his previous recordings on Homestead and DIW-Japan are nearly as good. "Great Bliss, Volume 2," along with its companion piece "Volume 1" and "Passage to Music" on the Silkheart label, are his earliest efforts. And unfortunately they capture Ware at a time when he is trying to figure out precisely what he wants out of his music. Not that he is a rookie, on the contrary, I have him on a 1975 album of Cecil Taylor's called "Dark to Themselves." But on "Great Bliss," the band, and Ware's music relies heavily on group improvisation, is still trying to forge its distinctive wall of sound, with Ware himself juggling no less than four different instruments -- tenor sax, flute, (and the rarer) saxello and stritch. It is interesting to hear the diversity of sounds Ware explores on these instruments, but clearly his rich, coarse tone is best suited to tenor. Some will find this music quite fulfilling, but since Ware's music is not very accessible to begin with, you're better off checking out the newer stuff on Sony, or if you're lucky enough to find it "Flight of i.""