Search - Vince Mendoza :: Start Here

Different and better for it

Christopher Dundas | california | 04/09/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have 3 of Vince's CDs and this in my opinion is the best. The second track "Angelicus" is worth the price of admission alone. This entire album is not your usual anything - instrumentation, form, even genre. I knew of Vince from jazz, but he's done work for Bjork and Joni Mitchell among others. So when I say "different and better for it" I mean different from what you've heard before, and different from what you expect. Sure there are some general similarities - Gil Evans might be one - and people say nothing truly new is ever created, but when you've heard Giant Steps, Blue in Green, and Take Five about 687,942 times on the radio in the last 3 weeks, you're ready for something new. This is it.

You're still reading? All right. Peter Erskine, Joe Lovano, Ralph Towner, Gary Peacock, John Scofield, Bob Mintzer, and more awesome musicians grace this CD. "Angelicus" for instance has 3 french horns, bass trombone, and tuba in addition to the standard piano, bass, drums, guitar. All the tracks have a different instrumentation, usually with a jazz quintet at its core. Just being different is a good start, but then great compositions, arrangements, soloists.... Words alone cannot do this music justice. If you get the chance, buy it."