“Within A Song” is the new album of guitarist John Abercrombie. It was released under record label ECM, it consists of nine compositions inspired by the music of the 60s.
Abercrombie decided to travel back musicaly trough the sixties after various considerations with ECM founder Manfred Eicher to make a record about one particular jazz musician. However, he decided to pay tribute to an era that had crucial influence on his musical taste.
“The recordings that I was listening to back then were mostly post-bebop jazz albums, usually by artists who were stretching the forms, in their various ways”, Abercrombie explains and reminds on music of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins and Jim Hall.
The albums opens with “Where Are You” from Rollins’ album “The Bridge” from which also comes “Without A Song” that inspired the theme song of this album. “Hearing Sonny Rollins and Jim Hall on ‘The Bridge’ was an epiphany for me,” Abercrombie says. “They just turned my head around. When I heard them playing ‘Without A Song’, I thought that’s the best thing I’ve ever heard! So for this new album I wrote songs based upon it.”
Beside compositions inspired by Rollins’ album, there are also “Interplay” by Bill Evans, “Blues Connotation” by Ornette Coleman, “Flamenco Sketches” by Miles Davis, “Wise One” and “Sometime Ago” by John Coltrane, and one composition by Argentinian composer Sergio Mahanovich.
“Within A Song” was recorded in New York at the end of last year with the quartet made of Abercrombie, tenor saxophonist Joe Levano, double bassist Drew Gress and drummer Joey Baron.
* Photo – soundcheck of John Abercrombie Quartet (15th Jazz Fest Sarajevo 2011)