Evinrude-Fifty (Trembling) - Brian Blade, Blade, Brian [1]
Reconciliation - Brian Blade, Cowherd, Jon
Crooked Creek - Brian Blade, Cowhred, Jon
Patron Saint of Girls - Brian Blade, Blade, Brian [1]
The Sunday Boys (Improvisation) - Brian Blade, Cowhred, Jon
Variations of a Bloodline: From the Same Blood/Fellowship (Like ...) - Brian Blade, Blade, Brian [1]
Steadfast - Brian Blade, Blade, Brian [1]
Trembling - Brian Blade, Blade, Brian [1]
As a rule, drummers don't make good bandleaders, because nobody wants to hear drum solos all the time. But what makes Louisiana-born Brian Blade special is that he is more of a colorist than a showman, a drummer who, like ... more »Billy Higgins, prefers to set moods that go with the grooves. Perceptual is his second outing with the Fellowship ensemble and is a satisfying follow-up to the band's Blue Note debut. With Myron Walden and Melvin Butler on saxophones and bass clarinet, Chris Thomas on bass, Daniel Lanois, Dave Easley, and Kurt Rosenwinkel on steel and electric guitars, and Jon Cowherd on keyboards, Blade and company create jazz textures that evoke America's wide-open spaces. Think of Pat Metheny's Bright Size Life and American Garage and you'll get the band's futuristic folk vibe on the title cut and the sly, shifting tempos of "Crooked Creek" and the three-part suite, "Variations of A Bloodline"--a poignant, musical comment on ethnic strife. Blade's melodic gifts got him work with Joshua Redman, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, and Joni Mitchell, who lends her wispy vocals to "Steadfast"--an elegiac meditation on the late-1990s rash of U.S. school shootings--and the CD's coda, "Trembling." If you ever plan to travel across the U.S., this recording will make an excellent soundtrack. --Eugene Holley Jr.« less
As a rule, drummers don't make good bandleaders, because nobody wants to hear drum solos all the time. But what makes Louisiana-born Brian Blade special is that he is more of a colorist than a showman, a drummer who, like Billy Higgins, prefers to set moods that go with the grooves. Perceptual is his second outing with the Fellowship ensemble and is a satisfying follow-up to the band's Blue Note debut. With Myron Walden and Melvin Butler on saxophones and bass clarinet, Chris Thomas on bass, Daniel Lanois, Dave Easley, and Kurt Rosenwinkel on steel and electric guitars, and Jon Cowherd on keyboards, Blade and company create jazz textures that evoke America's wide-open spaces. Think of Pat Metheny's Bright Size Life and American Garage and you'll get the band's futuristic folk vibe on the title cut and the sly, shifting tempos of "Crooked Creek" and the three-part suite, "Variations of A Bloodline"--a poignant, musical comment on ethnic strife. Blade's melodic gifts got him work with Joshua Redman, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, and Joni Mitchell, who lends her wispy vocals to "Steadfast"--an elegiac meditation on the late-1990s rash of U.S. school shootings--and the CD's coda, "Trembling." If you ever plan to travel across the U.S., this recording will make an excellent soundtrack. --Eugene Holley Jr.
"After my primary title of Student, I consider myself to be a lot of things, most accurately "Weird Jazz Musician." I've spent my life--or at least, the 6 years that have passed between 7th grade and now--listening to John Zorn, Ornette Coleman, Bill Frisell, Dewey Redman, etc., as well as more mainstream weirdos such as mid-to-late Miles, Mingus, Dave Holland, and Anthony Braxton.I've heard a lot of CD's in my (paltry) 18 (almost 19) years, and up until now, I thought that maybe _A Love Supreme_ or _The Black Saint and Sinner Lady_ was my absolute favorite album. But something about Fellowship's 2 albums--the self titled and this one, _Perceptual_--strikes a string deep within my soul. It hits me as pure honesty, pure unabashed beauty.My crazy jazz friends and I saw this group last Tuesday at Catalina's in Hollywood, and we were struck deeply. Brian Blade is an amazing musician, a deeply intelligent, spiritual and highly physical drummer whose compositions are just PERFECT. He seems, in the words of my drummer friend, completely HONEST. It is no hyperbole when I say these are the most amazing jazz albums (and with Paul Simon's _Rhythm of the Saints_ and Peter Gabriel's _Us_, thebest, period) I've ever heard."
Perceptions on Perceptual
Ryan Blum | 07/05/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I saw Brian Blade play a couple of weeks ago with the Wayne Shorter Quartet (which included, besides Shorter and Blade, John Patitucci on bass and Danilo Perez on piano). It was an extraordinary ensemble, and they played with a taut ferocity, one that deconstructed and reconstructed Shorter's classic compositions in fresh new ways (much as Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, and Ron Carter had once deconstructed and reconstructed Miles Davis' old songbook in their performances at Plugged Nickel). Brian Blade's "Perceptual" may be one of finest jazz CDs put out in 2000. It showcases Blade's percussive brilliance. No--"showcase" is not quite the word, for it makes it sound as if he is out front. Rather, his percussion work undergirds the music, swims beneath it, knits it together without drawing undue attention to itself. As other reviewers have noted, Blades is a colorist who uses the drumset not to thunder out rhythms, but to paint subtle textures whose webs intertwine with the intricate ebb and flow of the other voices, especially Melvin Butler's sax and Kurt Rosenwinkel's guitar. But this is more than dazzling technique. A risk among certain contemporary jazz musicians is to be all technique and not have sometime to say. Blade and his colleagues have much to say: about memories, about love and anguish and tenderness. The melodies are beautiful, haunting, melancholy at times, yet without sentimentality. But they eschew the drift into "smooth jazz" fluff and maintain a crisp edge to the textures they weave. While the title song is excellent, most representative of the range and intensity of the CD is the medley "Variations of a Bloodline." This is a conjuring of beauty not to be missed."
Perceptions of Perceptual
Ryan Blum | 07/05/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I saw Brian Blade play a couple of weeks ago with the Wayne Shorter Quartet (which included, besides Shorter and Blade, John Patitucci on bass and Danilo Perez on piano). It was an extraordinary ensemble, and they played with a taut ferocity, one that deconstructed and reconstructed Shorter's classic compositions in fresh new ways (much as Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, and Ron Carter had once deconstructed and reconstructed Miles Davis' old songbook in their performances at Plugged Nickel). Brian Blade's "Perceptual" may be one of finest jazz CDs put out in 2000. It showcases Blade's percussive brilliance. No--"showcase" is not quite the word, for it makes it sound as if he is out front. Rather, his percussion work undergirds the music, swims beneath it, knits it together without drawing undue attention to itself. As other reviewers have noted, Blades is a colorist who uses the drumset not to thunder out rhythms, but to paint subtle textures whose webs intertwine with the intricate ebb and flow of the other voices, especially Melvin Butler's sax and Kurt Rosenwinkel's guitar. This is more than technique. A risk among certain contemporary jazz musicians is to be all technique and not have sometime to say. Blade and his colleagues have much to say: about memories, about love and anguish and tenderness. The melodies are beautiful, haunting, melancholy at times, yet without sentimentality. But they eschew the drift into "smooth jazz" fluff and maintain a crisp edge. While the title song is excellent, most representative of the range and intensity of the CD is the medley "Variations of a Bloodline." This is a conjuring of beauty not to be missed."
A solid follow-up
Christopher Jones | Tacoma, WA United States | 05/04/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I've always felt that Fellowship's first recording (released in May 1998) was one of the best and most underrated jazz releases of the year. Then again, I've always been partial to Blade's approach to the drums--instead of pounding out a steady rhythm, he plays textures, using the entirety of his kit to produce a vast wash of sound. This approach works particularly well with his group, the Fellowship. 'Perceptual' is really quite a good album, and a worthy follow-up to the group's first outing. Not much new ground has been broken here, but the musicians all seem much more confident and relaxed with their respective roles in the group. The compositions are all memorable, sometimes haunting. That pedal steel guitar sounds beautiful, especially in this context! What Brian has done with Fellowship, I think, is filtered his own highly unique vision through a very talented group of musicians--with beautiful results."