Search - Liu Sola, Pheeroan AkLaff, Wu Man :: Sola & Friends--Live perfomance recording from the 1999 Beijing International Jazz Festival

Prepare to get blown away!

o dubhthaigh | north rustico, pei, canada | 12/15/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The most amazing and incredible concert I have ever heard in my life was Wu Man with Orchestra 2001 at Swarthmore College in February of 2003. From that point on, and especially after picking up Wu Man's FROM A DISTANCE CD, I have been an ecstatically devoted fan. This concert runs a close second and is all the more amazing for its polyrhythmic African and Carribbean influenced percussion and bass lines. This is world music of the highest order. Liu Sola, Wu Man's friend and frequent collaborator, as well as a highly regarded Chinese author, delivers 8 compositions with breathtaking scope. Be it avant garde Asian, blues, afro-beat, the music crosses cultures and takes on virtuostic turns that are some of the most compelling I have ever heard.
For the life of me, I just can't imagine what the audience reaction was, but as the Cd goes along, they become more and more rabidly enthusiastic. This is quite honestly GREAT music, full of adventure and command, discipline and abandon. The liner notes alone justify the purchase, and are the most creatively considered notes on any CD I've seen since Dylan's BLOOD ON THE TRACKS. The music herein is nothing like that, except that it so fully comes from the soul.
Saunders is an amazing bass player and brings a compelling counterpoint to the incendiary playing of Wu Man, who is, to my ears, the greatest fretted instrument player I have ever heard. She is Fripp, Hendrix, Segovia, Robert Johnson all wrapped in one and reborn as an exotically beautiful and incredibly talented woman. She is spellbinding to watch, fascinating to listen to. Her command of her instrument is the absolute crest jewel of discrimination: if you aren't close to this level of intensity, you are just enjoying a hobby, you are not a musician.
Liu Sola has collaborated with Wu Man frequently. Any and all of their CDs are worth seeking out. This one shows you how its done without a safety net, and the concert is one of the greatest in any discipline that I have ever heard. GET THIS!"