Label: Challenge Records
Format: CD
Barcode: 0608917329124
Catalog number: CR 73291
Releasedate: 30-10-09
Format: CD
Barcode: 0608917329124
Releasedate: 30-10-09
The coming together of five gifted musicians in a group that encourages individuality and cooperation, independence and collaboration, is the ideal (if not always the norm) in the creation of jazz. The band Meeting Point not only strives towards that ideal, it achieves it in a way that shows off both the separate strengths and collective vigor of its members. In living up to the endeavor’s title of Quintessence these five men show that they are truly the embodiment of what this great music is all about.
- A coming together of five gifted musicians in a group that encourages individuality and cooperation, independence and collaboration.
- Produced by renowned jazz producer Todd Barkan.
- Meeting Point is a fine example of internationalization of the New York jazz scene
- Meeting Point has its own cohesive sound, showcasing all of the member’s writing along with their collective playing.
Eric Alexander: tenor sax | Jim Rotondi: trumpet, flugelhorn | Andrei Kondakov: piano | Dmitri Kolesnik: bass | Lenny White: drums
Made under the watchful eye of renowned jazz producer Todd Barkan Quintessence exemplifies the type of jazz that excites New York City club goers every night. The date kicks off with Kondakov’s Secret Mission. The appropriately titled outing, inspired by a James Bond movie, opens with an ominous sounding melody featuring somewhat strident horn harmonies articulated over the composer’s intriguing piano figure anchored by Kolesnik’s strong beat, while being driven by White’s powerfully propulsive drumming. Reminiscent of the exhilarating Jazz Messenger sound of the sixties, replete with electrifying solos from Rotondi, Kondakov and Alexander (in the Hubbard-Walton-Shorter tradition) and a climactic White solo executed over a dark piano vamp, the piece epitomizes the ability to the group’s members to extend the tradition which inspires all of them.
Night City, the second of Kondakov three compositional contributions to the date, his impression of a sleeping metropolis’s deserted streets after dark, is an achingly beautiful ballad that recalls the pathos of Monk’s Ugly Beauty. Alexander and Rotondi’s sounds blend handsomely on the melancholy melody, while Kolesnik’s warm bass and White’s sensitive brushes tastefully accompany the pianist’s delicately articulated solo.
Made under the watchful eye of renowned jazz producer Todd Barkan Quintessence exemplifies the type of jazz that excites New York City club goers every night. The date kicks off with Kondakov’s Secret Mission. The appropriately titled outing, inspired by a James Bond movie, opens with an ominous sounding melody featuring somewhat strident horn harmonies articulated over the composer’s intriguing piano figure anchored by Kolesnik’s strong beat, while being driven by White’s powerfully propulsive drumming. Reminiscent of the exhilarating Jazz Messenger sound of the sixties, replete with electrifying solos from Rotondi, Kondakov and Alexander (in the Hubbard-Walton-Shorter tradition) and a climactic White solo executed over a dark piano vamp, the piece epitomizes the ability to the group’s members to extend the tradition which inspires all of them.
Night City, the second of Kondakov three compositional contributions to the date, his impression of a sleeping metropolis’s deserted streets after dark, is an achingly beautiful ballad that recalls the pathos of Monk’s Ugly Beauty. Alexander and Rotondi’s sounds blend handsomely on the melancholy melody, while Kolesnik’s warm bass and White’s sensitive brushes tastefully accompany the pianist’s delicately articulated solo.