Vision Towards Essence

Jazz | Sep 2007

Reviews

Fo
Reviewed 2007-09-01
MUHAL RICHARD ABRAMS: Vision Towards Essence
Pi, 2007

FREE IMPROV – Staggering solo piano tour de force by a free-jazz giant, recorded live in 1998. This is a single 60-minute improvisation broken into 3 tracks for easier handling. The music is darkly impressionistic with a lot of range, mostly accessible but flying farther out as it goes. Fans of avant-jazz and modern classical will enjoy this.

The 3 tracks work well, or you could switch to continuous play, fade in at any quiet spot and let it go for however long feels right.

1. 20:06 – starts calm, classical elements dance at the edges, growing more prominent; very dramatic and powerful middle, then takes on a spinning aspect, finally getting into unsettling, skewed refractions...

2. 18:23 – quietly tragic start, swells into huge storm clouds and gusts every which way, settles into bleakness then surges back, scrambling and tumbling; something like a cakewalk is blasted apart, and so on...

3. 20:16 – fast and splintered: disorienting sweeps, swoops and spins, then holds to a series of deliberate, steady pulses, churning like great engines; harsh, spiky section based on a low chord vs. a high note; becomes sparse with stabbing interjections, back to calm and out.

[ Fo ] 1-Sep-07

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Charting

2007-09-02 — 2007-11-04 Jazz
Week EndingAirplays
Sep 30 1
Sep 16 1
Sep 9 2

Track listing

1. Part 1
2. Part 2
3. Part 3