Alarms & Excursions

Artist: Bern Nix Trio Label: New World Records Category: Music Average customer rating: Media: Audio CD Number Of Discs: 1 UPC: 093228043720 EAN: 0093228043720 ASIN: B0000030HT Release Date: 1994-05-11

Listmania:

1. Four On Six - The Guitar in Jazz
2. Great Guitarists, Most of Whom You've Never Heard (Of)
3. My Guitar Heroes

Tracks:

1. Z Jam Blues
2. Acuity
3. Ballad For L
4. Just Friends
5. Desert Storm
6. Let's Don't
7. Driving Sideways Backwards
8. Pat's Theme
9. Boundaries

Similar Items:

1. Goin' Out Again
2. Divine Radiance
3. The Stratus Seekers
4. Ezz-Thetics

Customer Reviews:

Not far-out...just slightly bent.......2001-08-14

Nix's sound is absolutely straightahead--a clean jazz guitar tone without any fuzz or rock influence. His approach is entirely tonal, but within the outlines defined by Coleman's concept of "harmolodics"--Nix's effort to explain this famously nebulous concept in the liner notes isn't much more comprehensible than Coleman's own, but its main point is clear enough: "All players are simultaneously soloists, as well as accompanists. The idea is to create spontaneous music that is compositional, as well as orchestral in scope." That last phrase throws me (orchestral??) but the rest describes quite well the feel of the music: the music isn't a cyclic expression of an underlying chord structure, but relies on a continuously evolving polyphony which means that each improvisation is, so to speak, spontaneously through-composed. The music delicately & almost seamlessly negotiates between the options offered by conventional jazz, modal jazz & free playing.

This is to make heavy weather of a very approachable recording. The playing touches on all the conventional genres of mainstream guitar jazz--the blues, bop, the ballad, even the standard "Just Friends"--& leaves everything sounding fresh & unhackneyed. The great Fred Hopkins is an essential part of the music--listen to his swinging bass on the mordant, funky "Let's Don't" (Nix in the liner notes comments that it's "my postmodern reply to Cole Porter's 'Let's Do It' in this age of latex"). The fine drummer Newman Baker gets a well-deserved feature on "Acuity". The disc ends fittingly on the two most "out" numbers, "Driving Sideways Backwards" & "Boundaries": by this time the listener's ears have been entirely drawn into Nix's logical but unpredictable sound-world.

A little classic of the 1990s, & an album that should be picked up by anyone interested in free jazz on guitar. The disc makes for an interesting juxtaposition with the recordings of two other guitarists who've tackled Coleman's approach, James Blood Ulmer & Pat Metheny. I think it's just as strong as their work.

A Harmolodic Genious.......2000-05-07

Music CD:

1. Jelly ~ Dirty Dozen Brass Band
2. What The World Needs Now: Stan Getz Plays The Burt Bacharach Songbook ~ Stan Getz
3. The In Between ~ Booker Ervin
4. Hot Jazz in the Twenties, Vol. 1 ~ Jabbo Smith
5. Best of the Concord Years ~ Ray Brown
6. 1950's Radio Broadcasts ~ Oscar %22Papa%22 Celestin And His Tuxedo Jazz Band
7. 52nd Street ~ Ron Affif Trio
8. Louisiana Hot Sauce ~ The Jazz Crusaders
9. Alone with the Blues ~ Ray Bryant
10. Alive ~ Flairck

Music CD

Music CD

Music CD

Praises ~ Shinehead

Friction ~ Stavesacre

Underwear Goes Inside the Pants ~ Lazyboy

Make It Pop ~ Giddy Motors

Bad Trip ~ The Tedio Boys

Cher Favorites ~ Cher

Jukebox Rock

Hits of Chicago Soundtrack (Karaoke)

Time Lan Change ~ Kz Kombination

Wanted: Dead Or Alive ~ Kool G Rap & DJ Polo