Acoustic Machine

Artist: The Vandermark 5
Label: Atavistic Records
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 735286112825
EAN: 0735286112825
ASIN: B00005NNEP

Release Date: 2001-09-18

Related Categories:

Avant Garde & Free Jazz

| Jazz | Styles | Music

Bebop General

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General

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Modern Postbebop

| Jazz | Styles | Music

General

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Bebop & Post-Bop

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Listmania:

the most important jazz cats under 50

Tracks:

Hbf 4
Auto Topography
Fall To Grace
Hbf 2
License Complete
Coast to Coast
Hbf 3
Close Enough
Hbf 1
Wind Out
Stranger Blues
Hbf 5

Similar Items:

Burn the Incline
Simpatico
Free Jazz Classics, Vols. 3 & 4
Free Jazz Classics, Vols. 1 & 2
Single Piece Flow

Customer Reviews:

This Is Some Angry Music.......2004-01-20

While Vandermark doesn't have good technique on the saxophone (neither did Ornette Coleman, one of the greatest saxophonists of all time), he still plays some fairly interesting ideas. The thing about this CD that I don't like as opposed to other free jazz groups like Happy Apple are the intense negative vibes and anger coming from it. It got to the point where it didn't sound artistic anymore. That alone turned me away from his music.

Energetic, moving jazz.......2003-09-28

This is another fine disc from Ken VanderMark and his bandmates. I saw Ken at a local, independent music store a couple years ago, just playing his bass clarinet for the customers. He was in town for a show that night, and he has played here a couple of times. A few weeks ago I was at a local deli, when I saw Ken in line and recognized him. He and his band were on the way to Canada for a show. Stuff like Ken does is keeeping jazz alive and bringing it to a newer audience as well. The younger people should check it out, it has the energy they like, yet is not simple-minded nor does it wear out like pop music.

V5=mighty good stuff.......2002-06-21

It's always good to hear a jazz band that doesn't sound like the weather channel. These guys smoke, that's about all there is to say... They are right on the edge of swingin' and avant craziness, to me it's a perfect blend. Amateurs these guys ain't.

Great, and look for the limited edition with extra live CD.......2001-09-29

This is an excellent acoustic avant garde jazz album, quite listenable but firmly in the tradition of the jazz acoustic avant garde, with enough moments of blistering intensity to satisfy anyone's quest for excitement. Also, look for the limited edition with the second CD, a live set by this group of avant garde standards by Archie Shepp, Carla Bley, Frank Wright and others--it is just as satisfying.

Vandermark digs deeper into the Tradition.......2001-09-26

What struck me immediately about the latest from the Vandermark 5 is how it moves deeper into the Jazz Tradition. Not that this set will probably appeal to those who think jazz ended before 1959... ACOUSTIC MACHINE for the first time features Jeb Bishop only on trombone -- no dissonant guitar this time. Vandermark always dedicates his compositions, and those to Stan Getz and Lester Young on AM seem more apt than is sometimes the case. Others so honored include Archie Shepp, Elvin Jones, and Julius Hemphill. There are still Ayleresque moments, but also quiet interludes between numbers dedicated to composer Morton Feldman. The V5 doesn't sound much like John Zorn's Masada, but what they have in common is that they are in touch with Tradition. Both bands play post-bop that is accessible to anyone with an open mind and open ears. Vandermark and his band incorporate everything from swing to free/outside.

Atavistic also has a limited edition 2-disc version which includes FREE JAZZ CLASSICS, VOLUME 2, recorded live at the Empty Bottle in Chicago, with compositions by Shepp, Carla Bley, Frank Wright, Jimmy Giuffre, Julius Hemphill, and Don Cherry. (VOLUME 1 was included with a limited edition of BURN THE INCLINE.) Fantastic stuff, and a reminder that the Tradition is much larger than many bopsters imagine. (Atavistic has since issued FJC, V1 & 2 on a separate disc, and it's definitely worth hearing if you missed the limited editions.)

2005 UPDATE -- In retrospect, TARGET OR FLAG (see my review) and SIMPATICO were the best V5 recordings, their second and third from 1998 and 1999. Check those out for sure, and then SINGLE PIECE FLOW (1997), BURN THE INCLINE (2000) and ACOUSTIC MACHINE (2001). The more recent recordings from 2003 and 2004 are not bad, but are less compelling.

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