Indonesian guitar legend, Dewa Budjana is offering his almost ambitious album to date, "Zentuary." Supported past times an all-star cast of enormous proportions -- including jazz legend, Jack DeJohnette (over 40 years on the ECM label), the iconic progressive bass as well as stickman, Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel; King Crimson), as well as the extraordinary superstar sideman talents of Britain's Gary Husband (Allan Holdsworth; John McLaughlin) -- Budjana offers a profusion of cross-cultural delicacies which tease, cajole, enthrall and, ultimately, satisfy listeners. Special guests include guitarist Guthrie Govan (The Aristocrats; Steven Wilson, Tim Garland (Chick Corea; Bill Bruford) as well as Danny Markovich (Marbin).
H5N1 veteran thespian whose career has already been marked past times collaborations with a virtual "who's who" of musical luminaries, Budjana withal manages to enhance the stakes as well as lift the grade of his game on his 5th solo album.
Budjana's compositions are as detailed, finely honed as well as richly designed as ever, but Zentuary likewise features roughly of his almost open-ended operate to date. The easygoing groove as well as singable subject to "Uncle Jack," for example, deceptively bookends an 11-minute collective blowout, where DeJohnette puts downwards his drum sticks and, bolstered past times Husband's as inimitable kit work, moves to pianoforte for the flat-out freest rails of the set. Ebbing as well as flowing with a chemical scientific discipline all the to a greater extent than remarkable for a meat grouping of musicians—well-known names all—who induce got never played together earlier inwards whatever permutation or combination, it's a clear demonstration of Budjana's increasing comfort inwards such improv-heavy environs.
Zentuary's opener, "Dancing Tear," begins with a soundscape of plaintive vocals layered atop fretless nylon-string guitar as well as synth bolstered past times Husband as well as Levin's foreboding beat department work. But inside a mere 60 seconds everything changes as a to a greater extent than frenetic vibe emerges, with Levin's electrical upright as well as Husband's effusive kit operate driving a thematic, arpeggio-driven create clearly referencing John McLaughlin's lifelong west-meets-east explorations...though this time, it's to a greater extent than appropriately east-meets-west.
Budjana takes the kickoff solo, as well as it's a career-defining plough that still, fuzz-toned as well as staggeringly virtuosic as it is, never dissolves into flashy excess; instead, it's i of the almost impassioned, beautifully constructed solos he's e'er delivered—and it's withal simply Zentuary's kickoff track. If at that topographic point are whatever suggestions that his masterful technique is relegated only to overdriven electrical instruments, Budjana at i time follows that solo with a second, this fourth dimension on nylon-string guitar, edifice to its ain thrilling climax. Husband closes the melody with a synth solo of epic Mahavishnu Orchestra proportions...no surprise, perhaps, given that Husband has been keyboardist as well as percussionist of pick for over a decade inwards MO founder John McLaughlin's electrical flow quaternary Dimension group—which is, coincidentally, inwards grooming to revisit the Mahavishnu Orchestra's legacy for an upcoming North American tour.
Knotty contrapuntal ideas mesh with the complex polyrhythms that crusade Zentuary's largely episodic writing. Zentuary may smoothen a rigid spotlight on Budjana, but it likewise provides enough of infinite for Husband—a participant who kickoff garnered a reputation for his unrelenting virtuosity behind the drum kit, but who has increasingly proven simply as impressive on keyboards, whether it's contributing a motif-driven acoustic pianoforte solo to the ferocious "Solas PM" (also featuring swain Moonjune label mate/soprano saxophonist Danny Markovitch) or mind-bending synthesizer operate on the next "Lake Takengon," where DeJohnette assumes Zentuary's drum chair for the kickoff fourth dimension on the record, demonstrating that as stylistically far-reaching as his reputation has long been considered, at nearly 75 he withal has the capacity to surprise inwards the best of ways.
The album's to a greater extent than aggressive opinion in conclusion takes a breather on "Sunikala," with its to a greater extent than ambling groove driven as much past times Levin's muscular but spare bass lines as it is Husband's similarly spartan backbeat. Introducing the kickoff of ii appearances past times the Czech Symphony Orchestra, its lush textures lean to a greater extent than towards a progressive stone feel...no surprise, given Levin's long association with the genre as a member, inwards improver to his tenure with Peter Gabriel, of all but i King Crimson lineup since 1980. The tune's progressive ambience is farther supported past times invitee guitarist Guthrie Govan, who contributes a solo as viscerally soaring as whatever of his existing operate as a fellow member of the ability trio Aristocrats as well as as a quondam fellow member of progressive singer/songwriter Steven Wilson's band from 2012-2015, heard on the ex-Porcupine Tree founder's The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories) (Kscope, 2013) as well as 2015 follow-up concept album, Hand. Cannot. Erase (Kscope), with others.
Beyond contributing a wonderfully finger-picked acoustic guitar solo that follows Govan on "Sunikala," the persuasion that Budjana would recruit such a highly regarded, masterful as well as evocative guitarist—truly a guitarist's guitarist—into his ain projection only speaks to the Indonesian's innate humility as well as wishing to exercise everything possible to serve the music. By this fourth dimension inwards his relatively curt career on the international jazz scene, he's already good past times the necessitate to examine himself, but recruiting a guitarist of Govan's repute is as much a reflection of Budjana the homo as it is Budjana the musician.
Levin's reputation has, for the past times 4 decades, been largely inwards the progressive stone sphere, hence it's tardily to forget that he kickoff emerged as a jazz bassist inwards the mid-to-late '60s, with an early on career résumé filled with impressive names ranging from Mike Mainieri, Buddy Rich as well as Deodato to Herbie Mann, Ben Sidran as well as Gary Burton. Driven past times DeJohnette's signature cymbal operate as well as coming earlier Budjana's ain searing, linguistically rich operate on "Dear Yulman," the bassist takes a commanding electrical upright solo whose lyrical touches, deep-in-the-gut resonance, personal idiosyncrasies as well as reverence to the heart of the vocal would locomote unmistakably identifiable, fifty-fifty if his refer wasn't listed inwards the credits.
If it's truthful that nosotros are all the confluence of our ain lives' experiences, as well as hence Levin is but i of Zentuary's many examples of how these especial players examine non simply capable of bringing whatever as well as all of their extant career operate to bear, but are as expert at coming together novel contexts caput on, inwards this illustration Budjana's infusion of Gamelan—though, inwards Levin's case, his early on days inwards Crimson were informed past times this specifically Javanese as well as Balinese music—and other musical concepts unique to Indonesia.
Track Listing:
CD 1:
1. Dancing Tears;
2. Solas PM;
3. Lake Takengon;
4. Sunikala;
5. Dear Yulman;
6. Rerengat Langit (Crack inwards the Sky).
CD 2:
1. Pancaroba;
2. Manhattan People;
3. Dedariku;
4. Ujung Galuh;
5. Uncle Jack;
6. Zentuary.
Personnel:
Dewa Budjana: all guitars, soundscapes;
Tony Levin: electrical upright NS Design bass (CD1#1-5, CD2#1-5), Chapman Stick (CD1#6);
Gary Husband: drums (CD1#1-2, CD1#4, CD1#6, CD2#1, CD2#4-5); keyboards as well as acoustic pianoforte (CD1, CD2#1-4);
Jack DeJohnette: drums (CD1#3, CD1#5, CD2#2-3), acoustic pianoforte (CD2#5);
Danny Markovitch: curved soprano saxophone (CD1#2, CD2#4);
Tim Garland: tenor saxophone (CD2#2);
Guthrie Govan: guitar solo (CD1#4);
Saat Syah: custom-made Indonesian suling flute (CD1#6, CD2#3);
Ubiet: vocals (CD1#3);
Risa Saraswati: vocals (CD1#6);
Czech Symphony Orchestra, conducted past times Michaela Růžičková: orchestra (CD1#4, CD2#6).
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