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Season of Changes
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List Price: $18.98
Our Price: $14.99
Your Save: $ 3.99 ( 21% )
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Manufacturer: Verve
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0602517610477
Label: Verve
Manufacturer: Verve
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Verve
Release Date: 2008-05-06
Studio: Verve
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Editorial Reviews:
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2008 release of Brian Blade and The Fellowship Band which is their first new album in eight years by this critically acclaimed ensemble. Season of Changes finds the dynamic performer and composer reunited with his writing partner and muse, Jon Cowherd (Lizz Wright's Salt) and the critically acclaimed guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. Brian Blade is universally acknowledged as one of the finest drummers and musicians in all of popular music. His resume is as diverse as it is impressive having recorded and or/performed with Bob Dylan, Daniel Lanois, Bill Frisell, Emmylou Harris, Joni Mitchell, Joshua Redman, Seal, Wayne Shorter and more. 9 tracks.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Fellowship rises again!
Comment: After repeated listens....I think this is the strongest effort by the Brian Blade Fellowship yet. The writing is amazing, and the playing is beautiful.
They keep getting better and better with every album...let's hope we don't have to wait another decade for the next one.
If you are already a fan, definitely pick this album up. If you are new to this group...buy this along with the previous album (Perceptual).
The fellowship is without question one of my favorite small groups in modern jazz. They have cultivated such a distinctive and personal sound as a group, incorporating the best of jazz, rock and folk. This is ANYTHING but generic contemporary jazz! Brian is one of my favorite musicians period. Everything he touches is so thoughtful, sincere... and of course grooves like nothing else!
CREDITS:
Brian Blade (drums/compositions)
Jon Cowherd (keys/compositions)
Kurt Rosenwinkel (guitar)
Myron Walden (alto/bass clarinet)
Melvin Butler (tenor)
Chris Thomas (bass)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Majestic Impovisational Music
Comment: "Season of Changes" is an outstanding new album, not "jazz" as so carefully maintained by the curators of tradition, but nevertheless, majestic improvisational music by great jazz musicians. Kurt Rosenwinkel's soaring guitar is as close to Clapton or Santana as it is far from Wes. One tune, "Most Precious One," flashed me back to the Beatles' "White Album" with Blade's spare, hypnotic drumming. McCoy Tyner's utterly sublime and transcendent recordings of the 70's are not "jazz," either; it is modal music with very obvious African influences. But these are simply reference points from my era. Brian Blade and his group, with its textured ensemble work and impassioned blowing, have reached similar heights - very different from McCoy's work but still pulsing, urgent, the primal "cry" of horn or guitar recalling the mighty Coltrane's holy project to break out of the skin of this world, to find the essential source of all being through music. Not jazz, perhaps, but through this work, jazz lives, after all.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Nice But Not The Cat's Meow
Comment: I was captivated by the reviews so I acquired this and have now listened to this a few times. This collection does have virtues. Primarily, Kurt Rosenwinkel's guitar is interesting and innovative, and the textures - pipe organ, bass clarinet, etc. - give this band a different and refreshing sound at times.
Still, I am not blown away and upon repeated listenings bored rather than enthralled. The main draw back is that I just don't find the compositions to be that interesting. Many are in this somber/pastoral kind of vein but more somber than pastoral and I just don't find that they provide interesting canvases for the soloists. Many leave Brian Blade almost too far in the background - democratically supporting compositons rather than stepping out. Also, the textural variations from electric stuff to more acoustic based stuff, while a neat concept, somehow come across to me as disjointed as a lisening experience. The CD as a whole does not flow for me.
Speaking of textures, I have always loved the tonality of the bass clarinet. But I would advocate Eric Dolphy or Don Byron. And again, Kurt Rosenwinkel is an interesting and innovative guitarist. I would check him out in other contexts - if I am not mistaken Paul Motian's Garden of Eden Band. Now there's one that merits 5 stars!
This IS an interesting CD and a neat group of musicians. The five stars just don't shine for me.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Thanks Brian for some of Kurt's most enjoyable playing
Comment: I just played this cd after listening to Progressions: 100 Years of Jazz Guitar, co-produced by John Scofield, and I was struck by how Kurt Rosenwinkel's playing with the Brian Blade Fellowship sounds better to me than the playing of most of the greats of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. So many of these guys sound tense, as if they're trying to prove something. I like virtuosity as well the next man, but I like it most when a player's skill gives him the confidence to relax and get into a tune. Kurt's playing on this album displays that rare combination of flawless technique and a big heart. In fact these are my favorite KR tracks since Heartcore. Melvin Butler's tenor playing and Chris Thomas's bass playing are unusually soulful too. Thanks Brian for a great album.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Wait is Over
Comment: I have been checking and looking and waiting since Perceptual. In fact Perceptual is always in my rotation. The new CD Season of Changes has allowed Perceptual to rest (briefly). Contrary to it's title Blade and The Fellowship Band have not let up on making an audio experience visual. This groups sound makes you envision a place, a time or a person that you may or may not know. The sound is also atmosphere of intensity. When you hear them play, you feel them, you feel him. Absolutely outstanding from beginning to end and you will not put it down until his next CD (then you'll pick it back up again and again).
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