Search - Bill Connors :: Return

"Return" this CD

Jamie Conrad | Alexandria VA USA | 10/11/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Ever since I heard the first Return to Forever LP, I've been a huge fan of Bill Connors. His solo in part IV of Stanley Clarke's "Life Suite" is one of my top 10 solos of all time -- 5 minutes of continuous goosebumps. "Step It" is a monster in the same vein: that great singing, burning tone, with occasional moments of blinding intensity. I also liked his ECM acoustic records -- although they have a completely different sound, they express the same sort of brooding emotion.



I would Google Bill's name periodically to see what had become of him, which seemed to be "nothing," and so was hugely thrilled to see that he'd finally recorded something new after about 20 years of silence. But it was barely worth the wait. It sounds as though Bill's been off practicing scales, striving to expunge his sound of any sort of feeing or depth. "Nobody Yet To" is the only tune that you might recognize in a blindfold test as being Bill Connors, and only for fleeting glimpses of the old Bill. This isn't affirmatively bad music -- it's actually pretty good for working out at the gym. But if demons were what drove Bill in the past, they're definitely exorcised."

Progressives as inflexible as traditionalists

Charles M. Daniel | Missouri City, Texas United States | 12/13/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It's astounding to me how the spaced out, LSD inspired, cosmic, post-hippy, jazz-fusion crowd have exposed themselves to be as inflexible to change as are the jazz purists. The reading of this poor guitarist's fans reviews of this album is proof positive of the former statement. Well I grew up listening to Mahavishnu Orch., Return to Forever, Stanley Clarke, Frank Zappa and all the other Dieties of the screaming guitar solo just like my fellow reviewers. Fortunately, unlike my esteemed collegues, I took the time to appreciate other facets of the art form called jazz.



Forget what the ney sayers have to say about this album. This artist simply chose a change pace one time and what does he get?! OOOOH! He sounds like Pat Martino! OOOOOO! I wish someone would accuse me of sounding like Pat Martino! My God! What a compliment! Considering that this particular jazz idiom is not Bill's mainstay, comparing his sound here to Pat Martino only highlights Bill's versatility, which was probably the point of the creation of the album in the first place.



All the screaming, howling, mechanical playing, psuedo shreader, Steve Vai wannabes that are mentioned by the other reviewers here, never saw a "real" jazz chord progression that they could follow. Those other guys are the Gods of rehearsed solos. All of their facy licks where manufactured way in advance of their recording/concerts performances. And that "includes" Al DeMiola with McLaughlin being the exception to the rule.



With this recording Bill proves that he can do the "Now, Here's Something Completely Different" thing. And he pulls it off quite nicely if you ask me! See if any of the other so-called guitar gods would care to try. Let's see if any of them would be good enough to envoke the name of Pat Martino. I think not! Those guys are way too satisfied playing screaming solos to whole note rhythmed chord progressions to even try.



So for you fans of Bill that don't like this album - Let this be a lesson to you! Never do the Mesciline until you've heard the album at least once. We wouldn't want you to miss the collidascope colors!"

Very predictable stuff!

Speedy | Fl, MO USA | 01/14/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"If your thing is fairly normal guitar scales over 2 or 3 note chord vaiations then this is for you. Boring as hell for me. There is a ton of other more interesting guitarist out there. Better try Connors in his ecm period...much more interesting than this."