THE BEST OF THE LONELY BEARS

Hugh Burns does some killer guitar soloing on the DiMeola-esque "Kill King Rat" which starts off the cd. He has another midway through the cd on "March Past..." And the last 40 seconds of the cd fade out with a nice acoustic guitar outro from him. Other than that, there's nary a trace of this bear?

This is mostly a drums and saxophone album, which is great if that's what you're into; and Terry Bozzio and Tony Coe can certainly carry the load. Tony Hymas' keyboards are pretty noticeable too, though they serve more in the background and for "atmosphere" than with true soloing, which is fine too. I just don't get why they make such sparing use of Burns' guitar skills here. If nothing else, let him play the bass, because those duties are carried out by Hymas on the keyboards. Doesn't sound bad, but I LOVE bass guitar, and this music is just SCREAMING for some low-end fretless bass; let's perpetuate the image of a big fat growling bear here!

The music itself is unique. There are a lot of rhythmically-derived songs that have a "world jazz" feel to them - sort of an Andalusian or South American feel. I like this music, and I like the album fairly well overall. I just think they could have done better. And a note to other bands that are contemplating a "best of" album: fill the dang thing up! Why only give me 60 minutes of music here - was the other stuff not worthy?

Prepare yourself for some great drumming and sax playing, and you'll be happy with this. Personally, I wanted a little bit more...

3-1/2 stars