Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Kazutoki Umezu - Eclecticism

Everything is extreme in Japan. They got the hardest rock, the heaviest metal, their jazz is the most free of all, their country is the most western and I don't know if they got any bluegrass, but if they do, I bet it's the bluest grass on the planet. And this album has it all, from the free-est jazz to the hardest rock and the farthest-out avantgarde. It's the infamous Knitting Factory crew - Marc Ribot (in fact, his presence was why I bought this record in the first place), Dougie Bowne, Brad Jones, Curtis Fowlkes, Samm Bennett - the people behind the weird and wonderful records by Lounge Lizards, the Jazz Passengers, and many Zorn projects - but they are led by the japanese saxophone-toting prophet, Mr. Umezu, who takes them places even they haven't been to before. And the name, Eclecticism, reflects not a cold, self-conscious genre-hopping, an undead Frankenstein awkwardly sewn together from salvaged parts, but rather a joyful celebration of music-as-music, unconstrained by the genre boundaries.


Kazutoki Umezu - Eclecticism
REUP 11/11/14: zippyshare or uloz.to
230VBR, 73mb
1. Yakitori
2. Western Picaro
3. Juicy Mami
4. Horse Work
5. Stable Steven
6. Lulu & Roro
7. Junk
8. Ballet Dancer

4 comments: