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Eddie Gomez: Per Sempre
by Dan Bilawsky
Bassist Eddie Gomez has never received the attention he deserves as a leader. While that's largely due to the fact that he spends so much time making other people sound better, the reason isn't important; it's an injustice, regardless of the cause. His pliant and flexible bass has been the binding agent and rhythmic-melodic-harmonic go-between responsible for bolstering the work of pianists like Bill Evans, Chick Corea and Hank Jones, drummers like Jack DeJohnette and Steve Gadd, and countless others ...
Continue ReadingGabriel Vicens: Point in Time
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
On Point In Time, his debut date as a leader, Puerto Rican guitarist Gabriel Vicéns heads a solid quintet of young players, considerably bolstered by a couple of A-list substitutions from the highest echelons of Puerto Rican jazz: tenor saxophonist David Sánchez on a pair of tracks, and bassist Eddie Gomez on about half the record.Vicéns' guitar is ringing and clear, relying on relatively low-tech reverb. His personality as an improviser is already sure and well-defined; he is ...
Continue ReadingGabriel Vicens: Point in Time
by Dan Bilawsky
When Berklee beckons, most aspiring jazz musicians pick themselves up and trek to Boston to further their studies, but guitarist Gabriel Vicens isn't most people. While the young guitarist had a scholarship lined up at that venerable learning institution, he opted to stay in his native habitat and study at the Music Conservatory of Puerto Rico. Over the course of his years there, Vicens developed a distinct tone that cuts, yet remains warm, round and focused. He also created a ...
Continue ReadingGabriel Vicens: Point in Time
by Andrew J. Sammut
Gabriel Vicens brings together simpatico colleagues from the scene in his native Puerto Rico and beyond to explore twelve of his works on the guitarist and composer's debut, Point in Time. Vicens' compositions explore quirky, catchy heads ("Point in Time," “Beautiful Place"), plenty of vamps ("La Diferencia," “Frame of Mind" and “El Camino") and medium tempo grooves blending straight-ahead and Latin rhythms ("El Comienzo," “Cuadro"). He also includes brief, abstract introductions to several tunes by one to two players.
Continue ReadingEddie Gomez: The Playing is Free
by Donald Elfman
Eddie Gomez is known throughout the world as a consummate bassist, sterling educator and a musician active in a wide variety of musical settings. He has been on the music scene for more than 40 years and has worked with everyone from Bobby Darin to Giuseppi Logan. Gomez moved from Puerto Rico as a child and was playing music from an early age. He came to prominence when Bill Evans asked him to be the bassist for the pianist's trio, ...
Continue ReadingEddie Gomez: Duo & Trio
by Ken Dryden
Jeremy Steig & Eddie Gomez Outlaws Enja 2009 Great Jazz Trio Chapter II Test of Time 2009
Eddie Gomez has long been one of the most valuable bassists in jazz, especially after his 11-year stint in the Bill Evans Trio. After leaving Evans in 1975, he was quite active on record dates, including his unusual ...
Continue ReadingPaul Bley: Barrage
by Lyn Horton
Recorded a year earlier than the previous ESP re-released Paul Bley Trio session, Closer (ESP Disk, 2008), Barrage takes an approach that tends toward the frenetic. In fact, judging from the very beginning of the record when the trumpet and sax synchronize in a group of short phrase spurts ("Batterie"), the music seems to deconstruct bebop, go on diverse tangents and then conclude in a synchronous reprise. Such a pattern exists throughout all of the pieces on the record.
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