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Mark Egan: As We Speak
ByA lot of your response to this record depends on how much you like the somewhat elastic sound of the fretless electric bass; it's essentially one portion of the tonal palette favored by Jaco Pastorious (recall "Dream Clock," from Weather Report's Night Passage (CBS, 1980), except that Egan's tone is, if anything, more spongiform than Jaco's). Egan never hogs the limelight, providing lots of space for Abercrombie's well-known sound and Danny Gottlieb's drumming from out of the Jack DeJohnette school. The concentration of the trio's interplay is impressively sustained over a long set.
Much of the record is given over to slightly moody, slow numbers that give the players space in which to develop ideas. Many tracks"Your Sweet Way," "Shade and Shadows," "Three Way Mirror," "Plane to the Trane" (which quotes, elliptically, its dedicatee's "Naima")feature the leader's statement of the theme, preceded or followed by Abercrombie's limpid, deft interpretation. But there is plenty of variety in the set, from the Monkish "Depraw "available as a free download at AAJ some days backto the free-ish collective sketches "Time Out," "Next Left" and "Dream Sequence."
The recording is a little long, stretched as it is over two CDs, but then again if I could get John Abercrombie to play for two hours on my gig without any signs of running out of ideas and energy, and if furthermore I ran the record company (As We Speak is released on Egan's own Wavetone label), well... I'd probably put out a two-disc set, too.
Track Listing
CD1: Spirals; As We Speak; Vanishing Point; Mississippi Nights; Alone Together; Your Sweet Way; Three-Way Mirror; Tone Poem for My Father. CD2: Shade and Shadows; Next Left; Dream Sequence; Depraw; Stiletto; Plane to Trane; Time Out; Summer Sand.
Personnel
Mark Egan
bassMark Egan: fretless electric bass; John Abercrombie: guitar; Danny Gottlieb: drums.
Album information
Title: As We Speak | Year Released: 2006 | Record Label: Wavetone Records
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