Grand Unification Theory

Grand Unification Theory Artist: Stefon Harris
Label: Blue Note Records
Category: Music



Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


UPC: 724353249823
EAN: 0724353249823
ASIN: B00007KWJP


Release Date: 2003-02-11

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Listmania:

  1. Add depth to your jazz collection
  2. A 46-year-old critic's favorite albums of 2003
  3. Best of the Nu Jazz

Tracks:

  1. Prologue
  2. The Birth Of Time
  3. The Velvet Couch
  4. Morph
  5. Corridor Of Elusive Dreams
  6. Escape To Quiet Desperation
  7. Song Of The Whispering Banshee
  8. March Of The Angels
  9. The Mystic Messenger
  10. Rebirth
  11. The Grand Unification Theory
  12. Intro To Epilogue
  13. Epilogue

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Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Masterpiece.......2007-02-22

Stefon Harris pulls off a stunning record for Blue Note Records here with his musical epic "The Grand Unification Theory", a theme-based album observing the cycle of life (both physical and metaphysical). This music is easily accessible on every track, and would have to be viewed as an interaction between freedom and structure. Every selection on this album will one day be viewed as a classic.

Personnel: Stefon Harris (vibraphone, marimba, percussion and voice), Xavier Davis (piano), Tarus Mateen (bass and vocals), Terreon Gully (drums), Kahlil Kwame Bell (African percussion, concert bass drum), Anne Drummond (flute and alto flute), Douglas Purviance (bass trombone), Steve Turre (trombone and shells), Derrick Gardner (trumpet and flugelhorn), Tim Warfield (tenor sax), Mark Vinci (clarinet) and Myles Weinstein (tympani).

5 out of 5 stars A concept album that works!.......2003-03-03

Stefon Harris is far from being the first jazz artist to attempt a concept album. Wayne Shorter's _The All-Seeing Eye_ (which this album resembles musically), Grachan Moncur's _Evolution_, and, perhaps most distinguished of all Charles Mingus' _Pithecanthropus Erectus_ all put forth complex musical visions suggesting humanity's evolution, with varying degrees of success. While it might seem arrogant and overly ambitious for Stefon Harris to attempt such a vision on his third album as sole leader, he pulls it off. Each subsequent listening makes this clearer. It's also an *accessible* grand concept album, with some funky, danceable tunes alternating with the moodier, more cerebral compositions. This album proves that Stefon Harris is among the best younger musicians, regardless of genre, and perhaps among the best, period.

5 out of 5 stars Quite astounding and very listenable--a rare combination.......2003-02-14

If you're a young, up-and-coming jazz vibes player and composer and you name your latest cd Grand Unification Theory, you're probably asking for trouble. But you know what? I don't think Stefon Harris cares. Yeah, it's brash, yeah, it's over the top, but if you've got the concept, the chops, and the chutzpah to back it up, maybe--just maybe--you can pull it off.

Actually, let's forget about the grandiosity for a moment and just concentrate on the music. Harris is certainly the most accomplished vibes player of his generation--check out his solos on "The Velvet Couch" and "March of the Angels," for example--and he's no slouch as a composer either. Plus he lays down some tasty marimba as well. But where he really excels is in choosing band mates and arranging. Utilizing 12 musicians--many not very well known (Terreon Gully on drums, a name new to me, especially shines)--in various combinations, Harris always seems to find the ideal creative context for each and all to strut their stuff. In a work this ambitious, it's a given that there will be unwieldy passages, but, amazingly, these are kept to a minimum. And even if there's a bit of repetition, things never seem to bog down. What I especially like about this disc is the stunning variety of sonic soundscapes Harris achieves, all within recognizable (if sometimes rather radically tweaked) song forms.

With jazz in the hands of such prodigiously talented young practitioners as Stefon Harris, Jason Moran, Jacky Terrasson, Peter Epstein, Gregory Hutchinson, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Ben Allison, Michael Blake, Ben Monder, Guillermo Klein, and others, it has a very bright future. And with this fine disc, Stefon Harris vaults to very near the head of the class.

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