Search - Kahil El'Zabar :: Love Outside of Dreams

Zabar hits new heights

Boris Godunov | Melbourne, Australia | 06/30/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In my estimation, "Love Outside of Dreams" is Kahil El Zabar's best recorded trio performance. To a large extent, this is because he finds himself in the best possible company for such a date. This is significant, because El Zabar's compositions, while sometimes charming and often strong, are rarely more than fragmentary. As such, they are particularly demanding on the melodic and harmonic improvisational capabilities of his frontline partners and it has to be said that the melodic and harmonic capabilities of David Murray and the late Fred Hopkins exceed those of El Zabar's more frequent collaborators such as Ari Brown and Malachi Favors (both fine players). Murray is in very fine voice here. His capacity to combine space age chops with some of the rich, almost syruppy tonal quality of pre-bop horn players is unparalleled and his range and power of expression on the bass clarinet unrivalled. Hopkins, too, plays with great sonority and bounce. El Zabar, as usual, brings out his thumb piano and African drums as well as his trap set but playing alongside two masters, the qualities of his playing - loose but emphatic swing that sometimes rises to a whirlwind - are reinforced and allowed to shine. Highly recommended, progressive but traditional modern jazz."