BUY this album N-O-W EVEN IF you ONLY like JAZZ, JIMI, both, or neither....
5
By Joe_Santorini
Earlier this morning, I was browsing thru the Oct 2011 issue of Guitar Player magazine (pages 62-68) when I came upon this article on Nguyên Lê (NL). WOWWWW! I could not even get thru the preview of the 10 tunes on the album before starting to write this review. Hold on a Mississippi second (that's at least several minutes in real time)...IFF (if & only if) you LOVE jazz + jimi =LY (a little math lingo there--EQUAL-LY), you MUST buy this album, even if you only think you do, buy it, BUY IT NOW. NL is a total phenom! With the permission of Guitar Player and Barry Cleveland, the Associate Editor who wrote the Artist column about NL, here is an excerpt of the opening salvo of pure hyperdimensional truth:
"French guitarist and composer Nguyên Lê is arguably the most potent creative force in the rapidly evolving world-jazz-fusion movement...released 12 unique albums since 1989, including works that explore and integrate various world music traditions...with American and European music, and 2002's genre warping Hendrix tribute...."
P.S. I sure hope his epic work, the 6-CD box set "Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology" is available somewhere....
