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Marc Johnson / Eliane Elias: Swept Away
by Dan McClenaghan
Swept Away is certainly a collaborative effort--co-led by Eliane Elias and bassist Marc Johnson--but it seems more like the pianist's set. The Sao Paolo-born pianist, Elias, penned five of the disc's eleven tunes, and co-wrote two more with her musical/life partner, Johnson. The duo, in league with drummer Joey Baron and, on five tunes, saxophonist Joe Lovano, has produced the most sumptuous music imaginable, beginning with the Elias-penned title tune--a floating trio effort, a sensual haiku to unadorned beauty.
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by John Kelman
It's a relatively rare occasion when Marc Johnson releases an album under his own name, but based on the bassist's track record--from Bass Desires (ECM, 1985) through to Shades of Jade (ECM, 2005)--it's always one to celebrate. As Johnson fast approaches 60, it seems like only yesterday that he emerged as the bassist in Bill Evans' final trio in the late 1970s, before the piano legend's passing in 1980. But if time has passed, one thing that has remained constant ...
read moreMarc Johnson: Shades of Jade
by AAJ Italy Staff
Il contrabbassista Marc Johnson conosce bene l'arte di attendere l'ispirazione senza piegarsi alla ignobile fretta dettata dalle strategie di mercato. Questo Shades of Jade arriva dopo un periodo di silenzio quasi sabbatico e celebra in particolar modo un sodalizio importante con la pianista brasiliana Eliane Elias che è certamente la voce principale che emerge dai dieci brani che compongono questo album. Non mancano altri contributi importanti come quelli di Joe Lovano al sax tenore e di John Scofield alla chitarra ...
read moreMarc Johnson: Sweet Tone for Sweet Tunes
by R.J. DeLuke
Marc Johnson is an extraordinary musician, but recordings under his own name are infrequent. That can often be the case for people whose instrument is the contrabass. But for this musician, it seems more about making statements when the time is right.
Johnson plays exquisite bass, with the luscious tone and great harmonic and melodic expression that came to the ear of most people in jazz during his two-year tenure with the legendary Bill Evans nearly 30 years ago. Even ...
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by C. Andrew Hovan
Somewhat of a recluse, bassist Marc Johnson only comes out of hiding every five years or so. But when he does, it's usually to give us another nugget of inestimable value, his albums always proving to be an adventure with a healthy mix of tradition and forward-thinking originality. A veteran of one of pianist Bill Evans' last trios from the '80s, Johnson is a virtuoso artist with far-ranging tastes that have taken his own musical pursuits to many different lands. ...
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by Michael McCaw
Marc Johnson long ago cemented his abilities as a bassist since his involvement in Bill Evans' final trio. His career as a leader in his own right, though, has been a lttle more questionable. Released periodically over the span of a quarter century, his albums have run the gamut in quality from his excellent early ECM dates featuring Bill Frisell and John Scofield to the somewhat lackluster feel of Sound of Summer Running (Verve, 1998). Nonetheless, all this changes with ...
read moreMarc Johnson: Shades of Jade
by Norman Weinstein
Bassist and composer Marc Johnson may have taken a quarter century to distill the essence of his playing in the last great Bill Evans trio, but Shades of Jade proves it was worth the wait. What is most astonishing about this masterful work is that it took someone I would never have thought of as a Johnson collaborator, pianist Eliane Elias, to make it the summit of Johnson's recorded efforts as a leader. So towering is her involvement, in multiple ...
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