I don't consider myself very knowledgeable regarding jazz, although I did take a History of Jazz course my freshman year of college, so perhaps I am underselling myself. But at least relative to my rock and pop tastes, where I basically know what I like, and have basic aesthetic criteria that I use to evaluate it, my jazz tastes are much less well-defined. I know that I consider Kind of Blue to be a masterpiece, but that's about it. I say all this because Gary Burton and Chick Corea's 1978 Duet is a hard-core jazz record, consisting of 50 minutes of piano/vibraphone improvisation.
Yet although I was skeptical about the use of vibraphone, especially as one of only two instruments, I enjoyed this record quite a bit. Corea is a name I know from my freshman year class, and I found his piano-playing to be exciting and rarely boring, continuously exploring new themes and motifs, and I found Burton's vibraphone to be a great accompaniment. So in the end, if I am less certain about whether this is a 3 star or a 4 star record then I would be if it were a rock album, I am certain that this is good music, and as such, it easily makes the cut to stay in my collection.
No comments:
Post a Comment