Search - Marty Ehrlich :: Long View

Maybe it's time to look to another medium for inspiration

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 11/16/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is, after all, the third jazz disc to appear this year inspired by the works of a contemporary painter. First came Chasing Paint, by Jane Ira Bloom, a musical commentary on the works of Jackson Pollack--not bad, but not her best; then Branford Marsalis released the dreadful Romare Bearden Revealed, a musical commentary on a famous artist who specialized in paintings related to the world of jazz. Finally (one hopes, at least) the last of these ventures has found its way onto compact disc with the release of The Long View by Marty Ehrlich.I very much regret to say that, after numerous listens, I'm having a hard time warming up to this disc, even though Marty Erhlich is an artist I've very much appreciated in the past (see, e.g., my 5 star review of his stunning disc from last year, Song).Inspired by the paintings of Oliver Jackson, with whom Ehrlich was in residency at Harvard University for 10 weeks in 2000, and a painter whom Ehrlich has admired for almost 30 years, The Long View is a six-movement suite of tunes with a postlude scored for a sax sextet, a brass quintet, a string ensemble, and rhythm. The pieces have a chamber-jazz vibe--lots of close harmonies, little rhythmic movement, not much improv. And although the playing is impeccable, and there certainly are passages of real power, on the whole they sound rather sterile and static to these ears.Certainly worth a listen if you're a big fan of chamber jazz, or absolutely must have anything by Marty Ehrlich. Others will want to sample before purchasing. 3 and 1/2 stars."