Review

This is a pleasing and rewarding overview of a rich and varied music career that incorporates free jazz stylings, avant-garde orchestrations, accompanied spoken-word pieces and most things in between. A rich stew like that could so easily have become an unlistenable stodge but clever track sequencing and the overall intelligence of the music and the excellence of the musicians concerned makes it instead an exhilerating experience. Jack Bruce and Robert Wyatt are featured to great effect, alongside some formidable names indeed: The Balanescu Quartet; Marianne Faithful; Don Preston; Don Cherry; Larry Coryell; Terje Rypdal; Chris Spedding; Steve Swallow; Tony Williams; Nick Mason and The Jazz Composer's Orchestra et al. This is music that rewards repeated listens. As the disc's cover notes say: "If the range of his work is its hallmark, his tone, as player and writer, is unmistakably his own". The range is there, the tone is there, the achievements are there - now all that is needed are ears open enough to receive it all. Dive in.

SUPER

Michael Mantlerといったら高尚で難解で、手が付けられないと思う方は多いと思います。しかし、本作はベスト・アルバム的な編集となっていますし、クレジットにJack Bruceや Nick Mason、Robert Wyattなどの名前を見つけて食指を動かす方もいるのでは？そして、その内容は・・・、もちろんCreamもPink FloydもSoft Machineでさえも、その香りは漂ってきません。ひたすら、我慢の一時間強かもしれません。しかし、ジャズ史上にその名を残すJazz Composer's Orchestra の生みの親の歴史を辿る作品と思えば、また、何らかの発見があるのでは、と思います。Jack Bruceのボーカルも気合が入っていますし。