Search - Gregg & Nels Cline Bendian :: Interstellar Space Revisited

Woooooooow!

Stephen | Virginia Beach, VA USA | 02/01/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Don't look for stock riffs and runs here! Most jazz guitarists sound alike with a Wes Montgomery or Jim Hall thing going on. Its refreshing to hear a guitarist who obviously has the chops cultivate "sounds" from the Guitar (Frisell, Jeb Bishop, Brandon Ross are a few others I can think of). Cline doesn't just appoximate Coltrane's tenor sound. He uses it as a jumping off point - his playing is about the Guitar.Bendian also smokes here. The whole suite is awesome, not a weak moment. I found their version of Lonnie's Lament with Bendian on vibes to be just as strong, if not as "free" as the Interstellar Space tunes. Just Get It!"

Great Re-Make Of Coltrane Classic

skapunkbluesjazzrock | 01/25/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album is an amazing remake of the John Coltrane classic Interstellar Space, but honestly the album is more than just a simple re-make, it amazingly sends Coltrane's music into an entire new direction of creativity. Interstellar Space features only a drummer and a guitarist pooring their hearts out into a recreation of the genious that is John Coltrane. The free jazz drums are played quickly and skillfully, while the guitarist plays a wide range of screechy and spacey sounds, and you soon realize after about a minute of the first track that these guys are some seriously awesome musicians. Buy this album if you want something different, and great."

A Stellar Revisitation

Pharoah S. Wail | Inner Space | 01/13/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Let's face it, stamp a famous dead musicians name on a cd then base the cd on one of his most well-known works and you have a built-in marketing promotion for your cd. Well, don't even start to think that this is a haphazard "tribute album" that's more about money than music.



I can't say that I agreed with the "official review" that Amazon has posted though. Nels Cline is not approximating Coltrane's phrasing or sound at all (and I do not mean that badly!). This isn't a guitarist and a drummer just recreating something that a saxophonist and a drummer did 33 years ago. This is a guitarist and a drummer taking that 33-year-old album and using it's themes only as a launching pad for their own brand of interstellar improvisations. Coltrane's INTERSTELLAR SPACE and this cd share in the same "spirit" of giving into the musical unknown, but musically-stylistically speaking, these are two very different pieces of music, and both should be in the collection of anyone who loves creative improvisation. This would have terrified and astonished Coltrane even at his most out music of '66 and '67. Nels is beautiful and insane."