Search - Wu Man :: Posture of Reality

AN ASTOUNDING JAZZ WORKOUT, MAYBE THE BEST

o dubhthaigh | north rustico, pei, canada | 05/17/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"bass and fretwork since Charlie Haden and Pat Metheny's collaboration from a few years back, ANOTHER MISSOURI SKY. From the opening bent notes of the double bass on this mostly live recording, there is a very deep blue groove to this CD. Tatsu Aoki is considered the Japanese equivalent of Charlie Haden and his soulful blues give this concert a grounding and rhythmic pulse that is profoundly sublime. Wu Man takes flight with such imagination across this performance that I must consider this disc as significant as her impressive FROM A DISTANCE CD. The audience is in to it all the way. This was recorded at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. I happened to have caught the tour at The Art Gallery of Ontario and was stunned, gobsmacked and done in by how incredible this music is. No mean feat to lay down the blues in Chicago. There is an intimacy to this recording that is very live. The Cd gives you the sense you were there. The dynamics that Wu Man creates are quite breathtaking. The "compositions" here are really more extended improvs, with the exception of Oppenheimer's "The Letter" track 2, but there is both an intelligence and a passion to the pieces that bring them into focus with extraordinary power.

The disc is everything I often think that King Crimson aspires to. I can nearly hear Bill Bruford accompanying this music.

In any case, if you are at all a fan of Wu Man, certainly there is much to embrace here. If you are a fan of jazz and improvisational music, this is about as good as you'll ever hear it. What an accomplishment! Brilliant!"