Now You See It, Now You Don’t - Michael Brecker

Mar

19

Now You See It, Now You Don’t - Michael Brecker

≡ Category: 1990s, Fusion, Post Bop, Recommended, Reviews |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING

Rating:

This one nearly didn’t make it onto the Recommended Recording list, and it’s not entirely Michael Brecker’s fault. Brecker is nothing if not consistent as a soloist, and he doesn’t break the pattern here. It’s just that Michael Brecker has 10 albums as a leader, a bunch as a co-leader, and a ton of featured soloist spots. You don’t need to own it all. In order to justify the purchase of a Michael Brecker date, you need more than Brecker’s usual impeccable soloing. You need other musicians giving compelling performances, interesting arrangements, and tunes that can stand up to repeat listens. Now You See It, Now You Don’t nearly doesn’t live up to those criteria.

To start with, you’ve got Troupe/Worth’s The Meaning Of the Blues and Brecker’s own composition Never Alone, both of which are an out and out snooze. Then, as much as I usually admire Jim Beard for his ability to make synthesizers sound organic and interesting, some of his synth programming sounds dated here. Finally, Don Grolnick’s production is too slick by half, not unusual for the GRP record label, robbing the date of much needed grit.

Fortunately, there are some aspects of this recording which continue to sound fresh and exciting. There is a motif of fluctuating time signatures which is used most notably on Escher Sketch and Peep (both written by Brecker) which livens up the proceedings quite a bit. And there is the presence of Jim Beard. Even though I harped on him a little bit earlier for some cheesy synth textures, he contributes a couple of intriguing original compositions to the date (Ode to the Doo Da Day and Quiet City), not to mention his usual tasteful solos, which are often so well thought out they sound almost through composed.

My advice with Now You See It, Now You Don’t is to go ahead and buy it, burn a CD, and leave off the lamer tracks. You’ll know which ones I mean after you’ve played it a few times.