THE SOUND OF SURPRISE

Enjoying this CD for me requires right mood and condition. But there is prerequisite as well- I have to be able to accept jazz music. That's not really tough for me as basically I can enjoy the music under jazz category. It dated back in 1977 when I heard Chick Corea and his band Return To Forever delivered wonderful music of "The Endless Night". The stream of music was so captivating for my mind. I explored other albums of Chick Corea until I found terrific album "The Mad Hatter". Oh what a great music! I especially love "Tweedle Dum" which continues seamlessly to "Dear Alice" which really blew me away at first spin until now. Nothing compares to "Dear Alice"! It's so perfect as a powerful composition. Thanks to Chick Corea for showing me a taste of jazz music.

This album of Bill Bruford is different (even though not very significantly) from the music of Chick Corea where saxophone plays dominant role here - as well as piano. Structurally this album is less complex than Return To Forever or Chick Corea but the complexity stays at its arrangements and some textures of the music. Even I can confirm that this album is 90% jazz music while Return To Forever is 50% jazz. Take an example of track no. 6 "Come To Dust" which has relatively long saxophone solo augmented with excellent piano as rhythm section.

The style of jazz actually I can smell it right at the beginning of this album when the opening track "Revel Without a Pause" enters into my ears. The punctuations of jazz can be easily heard from the drum beats and piano rhythm that accompany saxophone as soloist. It's really enjoyable listening to Bill Bruford's style and the piano work that takes its turn to do solo work at approx minute 4:00. "Triplicity" starts off with excellent drum solo unique to Bill Bruford for one minute followed beautifully with great saxophone work and piano. "The Shadow of A Doubt" is a mellow jazz tune with nice accentuation of piano and drums. "Cloud Cuckoo Land" is another excellent track with dynamic combination of piano, drum and alto sax. There are many syncopated segments offered by this tune.

Well, I can only say that this is definitely an excellent jazz composition that anyone who has a sense of jazz music must own it. The composition is tight, songwriting is excellent and performance is great. Recommended!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW