Search - Robin Eubanks :: Mental Images

A slighted masterpiece

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 05/16/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sometimes brilliant artists get overlooked.Why?Who knows?In the case of Robin Eubanks, trombonist and brother of long-time Tonight Show Band leader and guitarist Kevin Eubanks, it's probably a case of bad timing and hooking up for his best disc (this one) with a failing record company (JMT). Yes, this company resurfaced as Winter & Winter, with an fabulous catalog of some of Europe and North America's best cutting-edge jazz, but their last releases on JMT are sadly neglected.But make no mistake, Robin Eubanks recorded two of the absolute finest discs of the past decade, the one under consideration here in 1994 and Wake Up Call three years later.Featuring a veritable Who's Who of jazz luminaries, such as Dave Holland (acoustic bass), Gene Jackson (drums, a dude who ALWAYS brings it, though he's largely ignored among the first echelon of jazz drummers), Marvin "Smitty" Smith (another rather unheralded drummer), Antonio Hart (a brilliant world jazz saxophonist, again somewhat neglected), brother Kevin, Randy Brecker, featuring some of his most inspired playing on disc, and the huge presence of Michael Cain on piano, another inexplicably neglected jazz musician, this album rocks the house with some of the very finest jazz of the mid-nineties.Together these top players lay down a tough but entirely listenable and thoroughly engaging world-jazz vibe of the first order.The closest analog to this music is that marvelous (and, again, sadly neglected) disc, Mad Nomad(s) by Henri Texier on Label Bleu, although this disc is slightly funkier and more accessible (and, perhaps, even more brilliant) than that altogether magnificent recording. With the same chug-a-chug rhythms, Afro-jazz vibe, and outre-accessible playing as Mad Nomad(s), Mental Images carves out a space in world-jazz seldom approached, and perhaps never surpassed.This has always been one of my absolute favorite world-jazz discs. You'll definitely want to pick it up if you have even the slightest affinity for this, probably my all-time favorite mode of music-making"