Marshall and Anger look back to look forward
B. Huck | New Jersey | 12/12/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Wonderful songs performed by an excellent lineup musicians hailing from the worlds of bluegrass and Windham Hill records. As far as the origins of certain tracks, Vintage Niagara is actually "Dolphins" from the Marshall/Anger collaboration titled 'Chiaroscuro'. The second track, "Piacenza" also first appeared on that record. Solera is actually "Ybor City" and Long Weekend was originally called "We Three"...both tracks were on Marshall's 'Gator Strut' album. Finally, Carmel is actually the song that appeared on Montreux's breakthrough record 'Live in Montreux', yet was originally titled "Egypt" on that release.
So basically, in addition to some wonderful covers of pieces by DeBussy, Chick Corea, Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt, as well as two newer exclusive tracks, there are some wonderful re-recordings of classic Marshall/Anger compositions included on this recording and, in my opinion, these new versions easily outdo the originals. This is mostly due to the participation of the world class pianist Philip Aaberg, who's playing adds a fuller orchestrated sound to the group, as well as a unique rhythmic dimension that was not prevalent on the string driven sound of the original versions.
If you enjoy the originals, I recommend hearing this and prepare yourself to be highly impressed."