Mark Turner Quartet, Jazz Now R3

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Mark Turner Quartet - Jazz Now.

Did anyone else hear this? I confess to finding it curiously static, non involving, and faceless, plus rather lumpen drums. The only real interest coming from Jason Palmer, the trumpet player. I'm obviously in a minority as the Berlin audience seemed highly approving, and I gather Turner is much rated as "an influence" today. Will listen again, again, again again as the Teletubbies used to mutter as they "fixed up". But not just yet.

[Old Grumpy]

Tried it "live" last night, but fell asleep - no particular reflection on the music, just the hour!

OG

[Ian Thumwood]

Bluesnik

I think I have heard Mark Turner perform live but I cannot recall whose group it was. He is always seen as a "cool" player and there is a lightness in his tone which makes his almost anodyne. He appears on a really good Dave Binney album called "Barefoot Town" which proves him to be a good match for the alto player. If you want to checkout where contemporary acoustic jazz is going, I feel that David Binney is a good example of someone doing something entirely different without compromising. Ok, it is different from the usual Hard Bop / Post Bop, but he does seem to have come up with an original concept.

One his own, I am less enthused by Mark Turner. The set on "Jazz Now" seemed really indicative of the favourable comment that Matthew Shipp recently made about the pianist Eri Yamamoto in that there are players like the Japanese who come to the music with their own concept and those who seem shaped by a college programme. For me, Turner falls strongly in to that category and maybe even more so than Joshua Redman who is probably the archetypal example of this. The quartet set seemed a bit uninvolving and needed a lot of attention to "hear" what was happening. I found it a bit dull, to be honest.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Yes, dull is probably most appropriate. And the lines a bit predictable, despite the bio references to Warne Marsh, who was usually anything but.

I've heard a bit of David Binney and there's a very good interview with him on YouTube. I'll check him out further.

BN.