So.. it’s been more than two years since my last post in this blog. Even though at first it served the sole purpose of improving my skills in written english, regardless of having any readers or followers, I started losing my interest on it, and eventually stopped posting.
And here I am, two years later, trying to pick up what’s left of this blog (I know, everything is exactly as it was two years ago – damn you internet!) and thinking about giving it another shot.
What led me to this? I’m not entirely sure. I was just looking for a blog with a decent layout to start a photography portfolio kind of website, then I came back to wordpress and started reading some of the posts on the blog. Suddenly I was back in time, revisiting some albums I haven’t heard since, and it felt good.. and then I noticed I had an average of 20 daily blog visits over the past few months and it made me smile. Yes, I know people haven’t exactly been googling my blog, but the fact that they stumble upon it when googling for some artist that happens to be here and actually visit the page made me think about “re-opening” this place. And so it is. I have a zillion other blogs that I use mostly for photography and random daily rants, but this one has always been about albums and albums only, so I’ll keep it like that.
Yes, albums!
Let’s restart with an album that I’ve been listening to a lot in the past weeks:
Original Release Date: August 19, 2008
Tracklisting:
- Travelers
- Peaceful Warrior
- Nemesis
- Riddle Me This
- Into the Labyrinth
- Karma
- Roadside Distraction
- Harvesting Dance
- Praise
- Afterglow
- Aaron Parks – Piano;
- Mike Moreno – Guitar;
- Matt Penman – Bass;
- Eric Harland – Drums;
What first caught my attention on this album was its name, which made me wonder immediately. What is an invisible cinema? Is it a place you can’t actually see (duh), or is it a place where there’s no need for images because the music is so suggestive that it makes you imagine things? I thought about that for a while, and then I decided I would give this album a try.
It is a jazz record, although it sounds very modern (E.S.T. comes to mind) and a lot of different influences can be heard throughout the record. One of my favourite tracks – Peaceful Warrior – has a very distinct oriental/asian feel to it at the beginning, before progressing to a darker melody and then completely changing its style halfway through the song. Usually guitar-oriented jazz turns me off (I can’t stand it), but the guitar work in this album is noteworthy.
The same can be said about the other members, to be honest. Every instrument seems to fall into place and fit consistently in every song, and even though the piano and the guitar are usually the soloist instruments, the other guys still find places to shine, be it with interesting basslines or more exotic drum rhythms. All in all, what stands out when you first listen to it isn’t a great guitar solo or a weird drum pattern somewhere, but rather an album that works really good as a whole, and that is how I think it should be done.If you’re into modern jazz, do yourself a favour and listen to this one.
Here’s a teaser:
Só Boa Música 