Just sitting down working on a spreadsheet for some fit out costs and been playing Donny McCaslin's "Casting for gravity" which featured a techno inspired quartet going through a grungy set of originals. It made me think about the fact that there are some records that occasionally get released which are sometimes inapproachable and difficult to enjoy. This is a case in point. I had quite of few of McCaslin's previous albums and stuff he had recorded with Dave Douglas which made me convinced that he was the heir to Mike Brecker. Records like "In pursuit" would have to be amongst the best jazz discs of the 2000s. Skip forward to 2012 and "Casting for gravity" followed on from an earlier "Perpetual motion" where there were already signs of moving towards a more electronic sounds. "Perpetual Motion" was a slow burner, a record I initially felt to be under whelming but eventually seemed more favourable.
By contrast, "Casting" is probably one of the worst albums of the 2010's. I was really shocked. There are tracks like "Alpha & Omega" where nothing happens but is it the filthy sounds from Jason Lindner's keyboard which vie with the stiff drumming of Mark Guliana in making this record a right off. I keep going back to it thinking it will improve or I will hear something in it but it's appeal is totally elusive. I have avoided anything by McCaslin since.
In addition, I would have to say that McCaslin's subsequent "career change" in to a David Bowie sideman has not helped his music. I saw the "Bowie" band perform live at Vienne and the music was an unpleasant, industrial noise. I don't think any group is helped by having Mark Guiliana on drums and have to say he is a musician whose work I have come to hate. I don't think he is really a jazz drummer and the lack of a human feel in his playing probably renders him the most impersonal listening experience amongst any jazz musician to have emerged since the 2000s. It is really hard to see any benefit in replacing Antonio Sanchez with Guiliana. He is too busy and doesn't swing. He is one of those musicians who would put me off any other albums if he materialised in the personnel.
I think there are few musicians who have fallen out of favour with my quite like McCaslin . I still love the earlier stuff but the change in direction on "casting for gravity" was a shock for me.
Wondered if anyone else wanted to nominate a record as being impossible to love. Everyone has picked up the odd duffer but the difference between expectation and reality with this disc has never been overcome no matter how often I listen to it. The music just makes me feel angry.
By contrast, "Casting" is probably one of the worst albums of the 2010's. I was really shocked. There are tracks like "Alpha & Omega" where nothing happens but is it the filthy sounds from Jason Lindner's keyboard which vie with the stiff drumming of Mark Guliana in making this record a right off. I keep going back to it thinking it will improve or I will hear something in it but it's appeal is totally elusive. I have avoided anything by McCaslin since.
In addition, I would have to say that McCaslin's subsequent "career change" in to a David Bowie sideman has not helped his music. I saw the "Bowie" band perform live at Vienne and the music was an unpleasant, industrial noise. I don't think any group is helped by having Mark Guiliana on drums and have to say he is a musician whose work I have come to hate. I don't think he is really a jazz drummer and the lack of a human feel in his playing probably renders him the most impersonal listening experience amongst any jazz musician to have emerged since the 2000s. It is really hard to see any benefit in replacing Antonio Sanchez with Guiliana. He is too busy and doesn't swing. He is one of those musicians who would put me off any other albums if he materialised in the personnel.
I think there are few musicians who have fallen out of favour with my quite like McCaslin . I still love the earlier stuff but the change in direction on "casting for gravity" was a shock for me.
Wondered if anyone else wanted to nominate a record as being impossible to love. Everyone has picked up the odd duffer but the difference between expectation and reality with this disc has never been overcome no matter how often I listen to it. The music just makes me feel angry.