Don Byron's best album since his debut!
Troy Collins | Lancaster, PA United States | 09/21/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
""Ivey-Divey" may very well be clarinetist Don Byron's finest album since his debut over a decade ago. Where most of his previous albums seem to have been stylistically limited by genre conventions in order to properly market them, this effort showcases Byron the improvisor instead of Byron the conceptualist.
Joined by piano phenomenon Jason Moran and elder statesman and masterful drummer Jack DeJohnette, Byron and co. stretch out on a varied selection of tunes, half of them old standards associated with Lester Young, who also once lead a similar bass-less trio. But this is no nostalgic look back to jazz's humbler origins. Classic standards are torn asunder and re-imagined as vehicles for extended improvisation. Nothing is sacred on this disc. Even an old chestnut like "Somebody Loves Me" gets deconstructed and utilized as a springboard for intensive rhythmic, harmonic and melodic free-interplay. An acoustic take on Miles Davis' electric classic "In a Silent Way" provides the group with a launching pad into the stratosphere, transforming the original ambient melody into an anthem of catharsis. It is in their expansion and elaboration of these tunes that their interpretive skills come to the fore. Although the group is occasionally joined by bass and trumpet it is the core trio and their telepathic interplay that dominate the proceedings here.
Easily one of the best jazz albums to come out so far this year, Byron finally makes good on all the promise alluded to on albums past by finally delivering the goods.
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6 stars if allowed
G. McMahon | 11/18/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is the best clarinet featured cd that I've ever heard. The only real question I find myself having about this cd is whether the old standards are better than the new material or vice-versa. In the past I have not been overwhelmed by Byron's material so orginally passed this by but I am glad that I took the leap."