Search - Jason Moran :: Bandwagon

The next monster pianist

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 11/16/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bud Powell, Earl Hines, Duke Ellington, Nat "King" Cole, Thelonius Monk, Mal Waldron, Cecil Taylor, McCoy Tyner, Andrew Hill, Ahmad Jamal, Abdullah Ibrahim: Dare we put Jason Moran in such company?Yes, a resounding yes!!Along with peers Jean-Michel Pilc, Danilo Perez, and Brad Mehldau, Jason Moran has staked out territory that puts him not only at the very top of the contemporary jazz-pianist sweepstakes, but among the essential players to have ever taken up the instrument.Bandwagon, his latest, a live disc recorded at New York's Village Vanguard, is a thoroughly remarkable performance. Perhaps the most startling cut, "Ringing My Phone," featuring a "soundtrack" of a phone conversation in Turkish (playfully subtitled "Straight Outta Istambul") transformed into a musical statement that faithfully retains the voice-timbre of the Turkish speaker, nimbly matching on piano the sing-song nature of the speaker's voice, brilliantly documents Moran's highwire approach to both his instrument and his group conception. Some reviewers have carped about the gimmicky nature of such an endeavor. I don't agree. Yes, there's an unequivocable quirkiness about such an approach, but if it's pulled off--as it is, brilliantly, to these ears--why grouse?The rest of the disc, gloriously recorded in such a way as to entirely capture the vibrancy of the monster group interaction, as well as the both the fullness of the leader's pianistic dynamism and the clarity of the unique instrumental voices of this most accomplished trio, lives up to the impossibly high standard set by "Ringing My Phone." If you want to hear modern jazz at its most daring, do not hesitate to pick up this disc."

Subtle ingredients make for a masterpiece.

David A. Cook | 02/26/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This serving by Jason Moran's piano trio adds to the already accomplished work in 'Black Stars' and 'Facing Left'.With 'Bandwagon' Moran submits his recipe for the Trailmix to the Village Vanguard crowd..a live performance that culminates in a prayer for a planet that rocks and this is a trio that rocks together;Jason's piano,Nasheet Waits' drums and Tarus Mateen's acoustic eletric bass producing a bowl of sound of subtle taste and ingenuity.Moran opens up solo on his 'cover' of Brahms'Intermezzo.Op 118,No.2 and then Mateen's bass and Waits drums are slowly drawn in....the slow simmering of the trio here adding intricate mellow tastes to Mateen's spiced starter 'Another One'.The Intermezzzo is followed by two extraordinary pieces,the first Moran's 'Ringing My Phone' which has marvellous interplay with the vocals from the Turkish singer Ahu Gural,then Jaki Byard's 'Out Front' in which Moran scatters the notes all over the kosmos winds them back in with some foot stomping bars and then eases you back down before breaking out for the sudden end...where you arrive is definitely not where you started out.The History Lesson 'Gentle Shifts South',already recorded a couple of times earlier,this time has Jason's piano with the voices of Andrew and Claudia Moran and Bennie Ruth Chester reminiscing about old friends and recalling their names.This is a beautiful atmospheric piece...you're there in the room with them, then the applause from the audience breaks the spell that's been woven.Later there's a fine cover of 'Body and Soul' and finally the gig ends,as it did at the London Jazz Festival,with the powerhouse 'Planet Rocks' which starts out as a march and then takes off with Naits' polyrhythmic drumming ...echoes of Tony Williams on Miles Davis's Quintet.This is Moran's masterpiece...infinitely rewarding."

Can you hear the music?

Mark Diamond | Sydney, NSW Australia | 09/23/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I had not liked Jason Moran's studio work leading up to this CD but I was surprised to find that I really loved the performances captured at this Village Vanguard gig. But did Blue Note Records honestly expect that buyers in the year 2004 would accept such atrocious sound quality? I have heard bootlegs of ancient rock gigs from the 1960's sound better than this. Bruce Lundvall and his team need to put out another live CD of Jason's work and put some money into a decent recording. It is tragic to hear such a great performance foisted on the public with such appalling sound quality. Messrs Lion and Wolf would be embarrassed Bruce, if they knew you had done this."