Overpass | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | ||||
Studio album by | ||||
Released | 27 August 2021 | |||
Recorded | January–February 2018 | |||
Studio | Nacena Studios in Säo Paulo, Brazil | |||
Genre | Post-bop, jazz | |||
Length | 43:23 | |||
Label | ECM | |||
Producer | Marc Johnson, Eliane Elias | |||
Marc Johnson chronology | ||||
|
Overpass is a studio album by the jazz acoustic bassist Marc Johnson. [1] [2] ECM released the album on 27 August 2021.
This is his first album in some 10 years. Overpass is a rare bass-only album; it contains eight compositions recorded in Säo Paulo, Brazil during 2018. Five tracks are originals; three tracks are covers, which Johnson selected with great care: Miles Davis’ "Nardis" and Alex North’s "Love Theme from Spartacus" were staples of the Bill Evans’ repertoire. [3] Johnson and his wife Eliane Elias produced the record.
Johnson said that several things led him to record this album, commenting, " I’ve been experimenting with different ways of playing alone with the bass to make music and came up with a couple of different meditative-type, pattern-oriented concepts. That started the idea of doing a whole record like that some time. I’ve been experimenting with that and throwing them on different album projects for different people, like with John Abercrombie. There are some moments in a track here or there, where I dive into something like that, but I had never tried to do a whole piece from start to finish with just that being the impetus of thing." [4]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
All About Jazz | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Tom Hull | B+ [6] |
Jeff Tamarkin writing for the JazzTimes stated, "Each bassist who’s taken the solo plunge has approached it with a different methodology, but one guiding principle behind most of their creations is the need to coax the listener’s brain into filling in the considerable spaces left by the absence of others, to give the illusion of fullness. Most of us simply aren’t accustomed to hearing an unaccompanied upright acoustic bass for a long stretch of time. Johnson is well aware of that, and he takes care to maintain continually involving conversations with himself throughout these eight pieces." [7] Nigel Jarrett of the Jazz Journal wrote, "Overpass is so called to describe a mini-survey of charts with which Johnson has been associated in one way or another. It’s his first solo album, and it presents a jazz master on peak form and home alone." [8] Karl Ackermann of All About Jazz added, "The virtuoso bassist Marc Johnson has kept a relatively low profile as a leader. Overpass marks Johnson's return to Manfred Eicher's label after ten years, and is his first solo album... The music of Marc Johnson, original and repurposed, mingles traditional jazz, vivid structures, and improvisation, and an intuitively unique style develops. It's quite a feat to generate so much appealing sound from a single, double bass, but Johnson is talented enough to make that kind of magic happen." [5]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Freedom Jazz Dance" | Eddie Harris | 6:47 |
2. | "Nardis" | Miles Davis | 5:18 |
3. | "Samurai Fly" | Johnson | 4:20 |
4. | "Love Theme From Spartacus" | Alex North | 4:23 |
5. | "Life of Pai" | Johnson | 4:25 |
6. | "And Strike Each Tuneful String" | Johnson | 7:20 |
7. | "Yin and Yang" | Johnson | 4:16 |
8. | "Whorled Whirled World" | Johnson | 6:32 |
Total length: | 43:23 |
Keith Jarrett is an American jazz and classical music pianist and composer. Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey, moving on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has also been a group leader and a solo performer in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music. His improvisations draw from the traditions of jazz and other genres, especially Western classical music, gospel, blues, and ethnic folk music.
Patrick Bruce Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.
Gary Peacock was an American jazz double bassist. He recorded a dozen albums under his own name, and also performed and recorded with major jazz figures such as avant garde saxophonist Albert Ayler, pianists Bill Evans, Paul Bley and Marilyn Crispell, and as a part of Keith Jarrett’s “Standards Trio” with drummer Jack DeJohnette. The trio existed for over thirty years, and recorded over twenty albums together. DeJohnette once stated that he admired Peacock's "sound, choice of notes, and, above all, the buoyancy of his playing." Marilyn Crispell called Peacock a "sensitive musician with a great harmonic sense."
Dave Holland is an English jazz double bassist, composer and bandleader who has been performing and recording for five decades. He has lived in the United States for over 40 years.
Stephen Paul Motian was an American jazz drummer, percussionist, and composer. Motian played an important role in freeing jazz drummers from strict time-keeping duties.
Tangents is a studio album by American jazz bassist Gary Peacock recorded in Switzerland in 2016 together with pianist Marc Copland and drummer Joey Baron. This is Peacock's final studio album as a leader; he composed five of the eleven tracks.
Shades of Jade is a studio album by American jazz acoustic bassist Marc Johnson. The record was released on September 17, 2005 via ECM Records label. It was Johnson's first release on ECM since 1987. Saxophonist Joe Lovano, guitarist John Scofield and pianist Eliane Elias are amongst the players.
White Rabbit is an album by George Benson. The title track is a cover of the famous Great Society/Jefferson Airplane song by Grace Slick.This album was George Benson's second CTI Records project produced by Creed Taylor and was recorded nine months after Beyond the Blue Horizon.
Facing You is the first solo piano album recorded by pianist Keith Jarrett, the first of his voluminous collection to be produced by Manfred Eicher and his first work to be released by ECM Records. It features eight solo piano pieces and it was recorded in the studio. It marked the beginning of Jarrett's innovative and successful career in spontaneous and improvised performance on solo piano, and it constitutes a landmark in his fruitful association with ECM Records.
The Toys of Men is the 27th studio album by jazz fusion bassist Stanley Clarke. It was released on October 16, 2007 via Heads Up International.
Yesterdays is a live jazz album by Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, and Jack DeJohnette recorded in concert on April 30, 2001 at the Metropolitan Festival Hall in Tokyo and also at the sound-check recording of April 24, 2001 at the Orchard Hall in Tokyo that would give way to Always Let Me Go. It was released by ECM Records in 2009.
Arbour Zena is an orchestral work composed by American jazz pianist Keith Jarrett featuring saxophonist Jan Garbarek, bassist Charlie Haden and members of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mladen Gutesha which was recorded in October 1975 and released by ECM in 1976.
"Nardis" is a composition by American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. It was written in 1958, during Davis's modal period, to be played by Cannonball Adderley for the album Portrait of Cannonball. The piece has come to be associated with pianist Bill Evans, who performed and recorded it many times.
Swept Away is a studio album by a quartet led by acoustic bassist Marc Johnson and pianist Eliane Elias, with tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano and drummer Joey Baron. The album was released on September 7, 2012 by ECM Records.
The Sound of Summer Running is a 1998 studio album by jazz bassist Marc Johnson released by Verve Records. It features an all-star Quartet with guitarists Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell, and John Zorn's frequent drummer Joey Baron. The title was borrowed from a story by Ray Bradbury.
Somewhere is a live album by Keith Jarrett's "Standards Trio", recorded in Switzerland in July 2009, and released by ECM Records in May 2013.
If Trees Could Fly is a studio album by the jazz acoustic bassist Marc Johnson and the electric cellist Eric Longsworth. The record was released via the Intuition Music label in 1998. It contains eleven compositions arranged and performed only on bass viol and cello.
The Gleaners is a debut studio album by American jazz bassist Larry Grenadier. The record was released by ECM on February 22, 2019, on CD, vinyl, and as a digital download.
Encore is a live album by German jazz double bassist and composer Eberhard Weber recorded at various locations between 1990 and 2007 and released on the ECM label on 6 February 2015.
Munich 2016 is a solo piano album by American pianist and composer Keith Jarrett containing music recorded live on July 16, 2016 at Philharmonic Hall, Munich during a European tour. It was released by ECM Records on two CDs in November 2019.