(Review by Steve T)
When reviewing an ECM album one inevitably finds oneself reviewing the label as well as the artist and the album. Occasionally I find I can't review them at all, because any link with Jazz is distinctly tenuous and I really can't recommend it to anybody, and so it was with the last two. It's based on the assumption that ECM completists have their own sources and don't need to rely on me for info about releases.
Any album by Bill Frisell is potentially of interest to the Jazz listener and guitarists in particular, but I can't get excited by an album with just guitar and bass. A drummer, or better still a Hammond, may have added some ba!!$; maybe.
Even Peter Green’s Albatross had some light percussion and this is like listening to an album-length version of that, but without the memorable tune, or at least one the media have bombarded us with over many years until you know it backward.
At last on the final track it delivers an Albatross in the shape of Goldfinger, for me the most over-rated of the early theme songs (and Connery films); I always preferred Diamonds are Forever which is almost a decent song in its own right.
It's live, out now and perfectly pleasant. Just don't expect it to hold a mirror to society or tear down the 'greedy square system'.
Steve T.
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