Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Edward Blackwell & Karl Berger: Just Play

Edward Blackwell & Karl Berger: Just Play

By Glenn Astarita
July 1, 2000
View read count

Edward Blackwell & Karl Berger: Just Play

A major proponent of the fabled “Creative Music Studio” near Woodstock, a scenic area located in New York State’s beautiful “Catskill Mountains”, vibraphonist Karl Berger doesn’t record that often these days yet has acquired an estimable reputation as a multifaceted musician and educator. Here, we journey back to 1976, when producer Martin Davidson recorded the vibraphonist and the great drummer Edward Blackwell for a series of duets which was originally released as an LP in 1979 for the “Quark” label.

With this reissue, we find Berger performing on vibraphone, an African xylophone called a balafon and a darbuka (goblet-shaped drum) while the late Edward Blackwell utilized a full drum kit and an osi-drum. Essentially these duets provide yet another glimpse of Blackwell’s uncanny melodic inventions and unwavering discipline behind the kit, as the drummer sings a song or tells a story behind each maneuver and meshes nicely with Berger’s improvisations, tonalities, jazz-based themes and world-beat style rhythms. Overall, the two musicians exhibit their respective wares in laudable fashion as Just Play provides enough luster and excitement to sustain interest and serves as a noteworthy recorded document for the admirers of these two master craftsmen.

* * * (out of * * * * *)

EMANEM website: [email protected]

Personnel

Edward Blackwell

Album information

Title: Just Play | Year Released: 2000 | Record Label: Emanem

PREVIOUS / NEXT

A Chat With Eric Alexander
< Previous

Meet Carla Bley
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.