Abrams, Muhal Richard / Vision Towards Essence
Album: Vision Towards Essence   Collection:Jazz
Artist:Abrams, Muhal Richard   Added:Sep 2007
Label:Pi Recordings  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2007-09-02 Pull Date: 2007-11-04 Charts: Jazz
Week Ending: Sep 30 Sep 16 Sep 9
Airplays: 1 1 2

Recent Airplay
1. Apr 11, 2016: Everything A to Z week 38
Part 2
4. Sep 14, 2007: Memory Select
Part 2 [excerpt]
2. Jul 25, 2009: "In Your Ear ..." with Bug, an evening on saturday and birthday to greta
Part 3, Part 2, Part 1
5. Sep 06, 2007: Emphysema For Emphasis
Part 2, Part 1
3. Sep 28, 2007: "In Your Ear ..." w/ d.Bug, for the one I want to be with someday, hopefully.
Part 1

Album Review
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

Track Listing
1. Part 1   2. Part 2
  3. Part 3