Leaps Of Faith
Jazz
| Mar 2011
Reviews
Fo
Reviewed 2011-03-13
Reviewed 2011-03-13
CUONG VU 4-TET: Leaps of Faith
Origin, 2011
AVANT/MODERN JAZZ – With Cuong Vu at the helm, you know it’s gonna be adventurous. His quartet – trumpet, two electric basses and drums – has a spooky, dreamlike quality that hints at Miles Davis in the covers but takes an audacious post-rock/grunge stance in the original tunes. The basses in particular keep things off balance, creating eerie soundscapes, settling into jazzy rhythms only to melt them down to ooze, or smothering Vu’s echoing horn in pure noise. Vu usually sticks to original material, but this CD has three standards (1-3), plus Beatles, Jackson Browne(!) covers.
Cuong Vu : trumpet
Stomu Takeishi, Luke Bergman : electric bass
Ted Poor : drums
Fo’s Picks: 1, 2, 5, 8 … or 7 for the full treatment
1. 5:48 – reverb atmosphere, trumpet is slow & lonely, brief thumping breakout
2. 7:43 – upbeat groove: melodic trumpet, twitchy drums & strange spectral tones
3. 6:21 – dragging ballad, spare at first; burbling sounds rise up, serene bass solo
4. 4:52 – rocking with a heavy dose of Seattle grunge; unsettling, becomes chaotic
5. 12:16 – slow, oozing jam: drifting improv layers pile up & melt, dives into rock
6. 7:22 – Beatles ballad taken very slowly: moody backing rises to engulf trumpet
7. 15:09 – splintered intro, then thick sludge: steady trumpet gives way to bubbling mass, which surges into an agitated wall of noise before trudging home
8. 9:30 – relaxed, melodic trumpet & bass/drum patter, builds to mania, falls back
[ Fo ] 03/13/11
Origin, 2011
AVANT/MODERN JAZZ – With Cuong Vu at the helm, you know it’s gonna be adventurous. His quartet – trumpet, two electric basses and drums – has a spooky, dreamlike quality that hints at Miles Davis in the covers but takes an audacious post-rock/grunge stance in the original tunes. The basses in particular keep things off balance, creating eerie soundscapes, settling into jazzy rhythms only to melt them down to ooze, or smothering Vu’s echoing horn in pure noise. Vu usually sticks to original material, but this CD has three standards (1-3), plus Beatles, Jackson Browne(!) covers.
Cuong Vu : trumpet
Stomu Takeishi, Luke Bergman : electric bass
Ted Poor : drums
Fo’s Picks: 1, 2, 5, 8 … or 7 for the full treatment
1. 5:48 – reverb atmosphere, trumpet is slow & lonely, brief thumping breakout
2. 7:43 – upbeat groove: melodic trumpet, twitchy drums & strange spectral tones
3. 6:21 – dragging ballad, spare at first; burbling sounds rise up, serene bass solo
4. 4:52 – rocking with a heavy dose of Seattle grunge; unsettling, becomes chaotic
5. 12:16 – slow, oozing jam: drifting improv layers pile up & melt, dives into rock
6. 7:22 – Beatles ballad taken very slowly: moody backing rises to engulf trumpet
7. 15:09 – splintered intro, then thick sludge: steady trumpet gives way to bubbling mass, which surges into an agitated wall of noise before trudging home
8. 9:30 – relaxed, melodic trumpet & bass/drum patter, builds to mania, falls back
[ Fo ] 03/13/11
Recent airplay
Body And Soul
Rebop — May 10, 2011
My Funny Valentine
Rebop — May 03, 2011
Body And Soul
SONGS: Cantan — May 01, 2011
All The Things You Are
Rebop — Apr 19, 2011
My Opening Farewell
Rebop — Apr 12, 2011
Body And Soul
No Cover, No Minimum — Apr 08, 2011
Charting
2011-03-13 — 2011-05-15
Jazz
| Week Ending | Airplays |
|---|---|
| May 15 | 1 |
| May 8 | 2 |
| Apr 24 | 1 |
| Apr 17 | 1 |
| Apr 10 | 2 |
| Apr 3 | 1 |
| Mar 27 | 3 |
| Mar 20 | 1 |
Track listing
| 1. | Body And Soul | ||
| 2. | All The Things You Are | ||
| 3. | My Funny Valentine | ||
| 4. | Leaps Of Faith | ||
| 5. | Child-Like (For Vina) | ||
| 6. | Something | ||
| 7. | I Shall Never Come Back | ||
| 8. | My Opening Farewell |