Vince Mendoza: Nights on Earth
Tobias FischerSomeone has to be responsible for the orchestral backgrounds provided to Sting and Bjork – wait, it’s this guy, who did an LP of originals with the London Symphony in 1997, titled Epiphany, and has since been busy working with the small-potatoes mentioned above.
This time the composer swivels toward the jazz world, putting on an organically meandering clinic in Zawinul styles swashed here and there with Caribbean fetishes. Pattering and puttering along, the all-star guitars of John Abercrombie and others exchange casual niceties with sax players Bob Mintzer and Joe Lovano, forming the musical aura of a stray leaf caught in gentle but unpredictable winds.
Nothing disagreeable or too edgy, but it’s a complicated listen, not mercurial but certainly flighty, a thing for neoclassic heads with a lot of downtime to figure out.
By Eric Saeger
Homepage: Vince Mendoza
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