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Artist Bob Berg
Album Short Stories
Recording Date Mar 1987
Label Denon
Time 55:08
Genre Jazz
Styles Post-Bop Hard Bo
Produced by Don Grolnick
Executive Producer: Christine Martin and Tats Konno
Recorded and mixed by Malcolm Pollack
Assistant Engineers: kMichael Krowiak and Jeff Lippay
Recorded and mixed at R.P.M. Studios, New York City, March 1987
Digital Equipment: Audioforce / Photography: David Tan
David Sanborn appears courtesy of Warner Bros. Records
Extractor: EAC 0.99 prebeta 4
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Codec: Flac 1.2.1; Level 8
Single File.flac, Eac.log, File.cue
Gap handling: Appended to previous track
Accuraterip: Confidence 10
Source: Original CD
Size Torrent: 309 Mb
Artwork Incluse [/b][/center]
Tracks (total time 55:26):
01. Friday Night At the Cadillac Club (5:24) [Bob Berg]
02. Words (7:14) [Mike Stern]
03. Snakes (5:54) [Bob Berg]
04. Kalimba (8:07) [Bob Berg]
05. The Search (7:55) [Mike Stern]
06. Maya (7:16) [Jeff Andrews]
07. That’s The Ticket (6:01) [Bob Berg]
08. Junior (7:17) [Peter Erskine]
Personnel:
Bob Berg: tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
Don Grolnick: organ, synthesizers, acoustic piano
Peter Erskine: drums, percussion
Will Lee: bass, percussion
Mike Stern: guitar
Robby Kilgore: synthesizer programing,
additional keyboards (on 4,7)
Jeff Andrews: bass (on 6)
David Sanborn: alto saxophone (on 4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQCv_2JsSrI&feature=related
Tenor saxophonist Bob Berg channeled the bold dynamics of hard bop to emerge as one of contemporary jazz's most expressive and resourceful improvisers, honing a richly articulated sound bolstered by flawless technical command.
Born in New York City on April 7, 1951, Berg grew up in Brooklyn, initiating piano lessons at age six. At 13, he moved to alto saxophone, first discovering jazz when a high school teacher introduced him to the music of Cannonball Adderley and Horace Silver. After dropping out of New York's High School of Performing Arts, Berg enrolled in a special non-academic curriculum at the Juilliard School of Music. In 1968, he made his professional debut touring behind Brother Jack McDuff, and by the time the 1960s drew to a close, he specialized in tenor saxophone, his subsequent creative path profoundly shaped by John Coltrane. After a brief flirtation with free jazz Berg renounced the avant-garde in favor of postwar bop. On the recommendation of fellow saxophonist Michael Brecker, he joined Silver in 1973, remaining with his boyhood hero for three years, when he replaced George Coleman in Cedar Walton's Eastern Rebellion. In 1978 Berg stepped out to record his debut LP, New Birth, and after leaving Walton in 1981 he cut his sophomore effort, Steppin': Live in Europe; he rose to new levels of renown upon joining Miles Davis in 1984, a three-year stint that set the stage for his 1987 breakout session, Short Stories. Berg closed out the decade in the band he led with co-founder/guitarist Mike Stern, cutting a series of LPs including 1988's Cycles and 1990's In the Shadows. In 1992, he signed on with Chick Corea's acoustic quartet, and that same year led his own quartet on a U.S. Department of State-sponsored tour of the Caribbean. Upon releasing the 1997 solo date Another Standard, Berg joined an acoustic reincarnation of the group Steps Ahead, and in 2000 he also joined the cooperative project the Jazz Times Superband, collaborating with Randy Brecker, Joey Defranchesco, and Dennis Chambers. Berg next surfaced alongside vibraphonist Joe Locke in the group 4 Walls of Freedom. Sadly, their eponymous debut set did not appear until after the saxophonist's death in an auto accident near his home on Long Island on December 5, 2002.
A very good album. Bob Berg started off making fusion before he went more into more swing and mainsteam jazz, but if you ask me I prefer the rocky stuff. It has great style and zest to it. Beautiful compositions, brilliant solos especially from Bob Berg on Tenor and Mike Stern on Guitar. They always make the pieces their 7 or 8 minutes worth, by building up the tension and letting go.
The album as a whole thing is incredibly varied, starting with the punchy swing-rock of 'Friday Night At Cadillac club' which I have heard redone by a few other artists. No-one gets it just like Berg does, so while it is a modern standard due to its catchiness, the problem is just that: it's so catchy that when it's covered the winding changes and explosive energy aren't there like they are here.
Next is the really beautiful ballad 'Words' and this is the album's understated centerpiece. After that you get the latin frenzy 'Snakes' and also the Marimba and Steel-Drum centered masterpiece, 'Kalimba' which also features great overlapping melodies and a solo play-off between Bob Berg on tenor and David Sanborn on alto. There's also the yearning and winding chords and melody of 'The search' which is almost a modern jazz treatment of the concept behind Wagner's 'Tristan and Isolde' prelude, to keep you hanging on to upreaching and never resolving soundscapes.
This is brilliant jazz from musicians who really connect to help Bob Berg get his sound heard. This record is great proof that modern jazz is by default the most complex genre of popular music, and therefore sounds better than basically everything out there. Oh yeah, the follow up, 'In The Shadows' is just as good as this shit as well. |
