First of all, I love the Fender Rhodes. Now, let's talk about how I got to this page in the first place.
Years ago, I was a jazz guitarist for a local band. I guess you could say I evolved beyond that--I got to the point I no longer wanted to play standards. I wanted to innovate, not imitate.
This led me to listen to what is called in the United States "Fusion." Some bands I loved (Weather Report, Jaco Pastorius), some I despised. The problem is, some fusion guitarists think that just because they can play a bazillion notes a minute, they need to do so at every opportunity; they practice neither restraint nor taste.
Imagine how pleasantly surprised I was, then, to listen to this album. The first track starts off with a guitar playing a *single note* rhythmic riff, expands to glassy jazz chords, then leads up, in stages, to a searing wall of improvisation.
Birds of Fire has loads of technical ability. But even better, they have musical sense and a good ear for composition!
On a side note, the band kindly provides a list of equipment used in producing their albums, and a list of band members. My command of French is not that great. One of the credits was "Jerome Gillet: Batterie". Now, to me, a battery is a little metallic cylinder you use to power small gadgets like flashlights and radios. It took some research, but I finally realized--D'oh--that "batterie" is the French term for what we call "trap drums" (short for "contraption drums") in the U.S. To tell you the truth, I like the term "Batterie" better!
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