Sounds from Africa, Rhythms from California
Russell J. Grasso | Massachusetts, USA | 06/02/2002
(3 out of 5 stars)
"This is an album is for jazz improvization enthusiasts and should not be considered a new age or environmental CD. Some of the animal and environmental sounds are wonderfully ambient, but some animal calls are just out of place and disruptive. If you are looking for a jazz-based album with African location recordings thrown in, this is for you. This album is not similar to the rainforests of Scott Fitzgerald, Robert Rich, or Present Dreams. Nor does it feature native African rhythms such as with Baka Beyond or David Hewittt. Native location recordings are heard, but the jazz ensemble's evolution of those sound bytes are, to my ear, not convincingly related, although the instrumentation gives an African perception. There is some degree of repetitiveness in this album - it is a disapointment that tracks 1 and 4 have identical backing tracks, and that track 3 has similar voicing to those. On track 5, the improvization is not African at all, but more a modern jazz, steel drum not withstanding. In summary, is an interesting concept, which produced some great scattered moments, but the end product lacks sufficient cohesiveness and continuity to make this a very good CD."