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Press Photos: Color (click here)
Press Photos: Michael Weintrob
Street Date: 9/18/2007
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ALEX
MACHACEK JEFF SIPE MATTHEW
GARRISON
IMPROVISION
"This formidable power trio of Austrian guitarist Alex Machacek,
5-string electric bassist Matthew Garrison and drummer
Jeff Sipe is impossibly intense, dripping with staggering
virtuosity and fertile ideas and seething with the kind of raucous improvisational
abandon that we haven’t seen since the heyday of Tribal Tech. For
fans of acknowledged guitar monsters like Allan Holdsworth, Scott Henderson
and the late, great Shawn Lane, the opening track of their new album says
it all: "There’s A New Sheriff In Town."
Machacek’s mind-boggling technique -- blazing speed, uncannily
fluid lines and daring intervallic leaps -- is an obvious place to begin
in singing the praises of this exciting new triumverate. But beyond
the abundance of soloistic fireworks on Improvision provided by both
Alex and Matthew, one of the most gifted and creative bassists on the
post-Jaco scene, there is also a remarkable depth to the writing here,
which comes across on harmonically sophisticated pieces like the atmospheric
ballad "Very Sad," the compelling "Shona," the gentle,
darkly alluring "To Whom It May Concern" and the gorgeous
"Put Me Back To Sleep." Elsewhere, they exercise zen-like
restraint on the freewheeling jam "Yoga For Cats, Part 1 and 2,"
then go for the burn on the aggressively slamming, chops-laden fusion
showcase, "Gem1 and Gem2." And the astounding "Matt’s
Riff," is a brilliant showcase for Garrison’s 21st century
approach to the electric bass guitar.
This stuff takes me back to the early ‘70s, to a time when creativity,
concept and risk-taking were the watchwords in fusion music. "
Bill Milkowski is a regular contributor
to Jazz Times, Jazziz, Bass Player, Modern Drummer and Absolute Sound
magazines. He is also the author of "JACO: The Extraordinary and
Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius" (Backbeat Books).
Jeff Sipe will be featured in upcoming versions of Drumhead, Modern
Drummer
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