Romance with The Unseen

Amazon.com
On Romance with the Unseen, his seventh outing as a leader, clarinetist Don Byron has recruited guitarist Bill Frisell, drummer Jack DeJohnette, and bassist Drew Gress for a session refreshingly different from his more recent previous efforts. On albums such as Bug Music (early swing), Don Byron Plays the Music of Mickey Katz (klezmer), and Nu Blaxploitation (funk), Byron presented listeners with both a theme and music illustrating the theme's thesis. On Romance the theme is Don Byron and the message is that he owns the clarinet. Throughout this recording, Byron's range, tone, and precision are nothing short of jaw dropping. Factor in DeJohnette's restrained drumming and Frisell's tasteful, everywhere-at-once guitar and you have the makings of a tight, hot, and remarkably coherent modern jazz album. While Byron's playing is certainly the album's highlight, the dialogue between Byron and Frisell is nothing short of remarkable. Whether breaking a melody into microtones, swapping runs, or playing right on top of each other, it's as if they're mind reading. Frisell is all over this gig, playing backward, forward, chords, solos, or comps or generating shimmering tone washes, all designed, it seems, to push Byron. Scrappy as always, Byron responds to the challenge by blowing pure, gorgeous jazz. Recommended. --S. Duda

From Jazziz
With John Carter's death in 1991, the world's first-clarinet chair was empty. The next year, Nonesuch Records released Don Byron's first recording as a leader, Tuskegee Experiments. Since then, Byron has become the clarinetist to watch, as well as an uncompromising composer and conceptualist. His new recording, Romance With the Unseen, finds him with one of his Tuskegee sidemen, guitarist Bill Frisell, as well as bassist Drew Gress and drummer Jack DeJohnette. Our featured track is called "A Mural From Two Perspectives."

Romance with The Unseen,Don Byron,Blue Note Records,Jazz,Jazz Music,Mainstream Jazz,Pop,Post-Bop

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