MESSAGE FROM THE ROAD

I liked Djabe's debut and early albums as one of the best examples of successful mix of very professional jazz fusion with tasteful world music elements.Step by step their music changed, and ten years after their debut they recorded "Message From The Road", solid report from their US/European tour of 2006.

It is a double album,first disc is CD and the second is dualdisc.The CD side of the dualdisc contains the Part II of the concert, meanwhile the DVD side offers the whole live material in surround 5.1 DTS and dolby digital.In the DVD as extra features can be found a radio interview originally broadcasted in Berlin in German and English language. The DVD also contains a 71 minutes road movie recorded during the tour with much live footage.A 32 pages colour booklet completes the Djabe tour documentations, gives a range view of great moments of the road life.

So, perfect package for fans. Now about music.

After three first very acoustic and colourful studio albums ( two first were great jazz fusion with some world elements, and third was more focused on world fusion music, in jazz arrangements), from 2001 they changed their music and sound radically. Now their music is based on keyboards with full-bodied rounded sound, pleasant, but far less inventive. During that time they changed two vocalists ( Herczeg Judit and moroccan Saïd Tichiti ) and stayed without vocal at all. Guest musicians as British sax player Ben Castle and ex-Genesis gutarist Steve Hackett participated on studio recordings, but didn't take a part in live tour.

So, at this album, based mainly on their last studio work "Slices Of Life"(2005) we have well balanced and pleasant pop-jazz-fusion with some world elements. Still enough professional musicianship,but very safe and not inspired.Quality easy listening,I can say. Not bad but far from their early beauty. And even being live recording, sounds very calculated.

Better go for first two albums and you will be surprised how good they were!