| Note: The following is a review of the LP "Ready for the 90's" one of two LPs that This Way Is West was re-issued from. |
| MUSICIAN Player and Listener
"Ready for the 90s'' - Krystall Klear and the Buells (K2B2 2069) |
| From the boring west coast come two albums that fly in the face of inertia. Ready For The 90s marks the return of master bassist Buell Neidlinger, whose credits run from Cecil Taylor and Frank Zappa to symphonies and studio work, and whose humor is reflected in sudden quotes from children's ditties like "Be Kind To Your We-Footed Friends." With drummer Billy Higgins and trumpeter Warren Gale, Neidlinger and tenorist Marty Krystall have fashioned a group sound every bit as imposing as the Mingus Quartet with Dolphy and Curson (including some allusions to the stop-and-go chase sequences of "What Love"). Krystall's vocabulary includes a gorgeous tone, a cunning way of rising out of the center of the horn into controlled overtones, and an earnest, orderly lyricism uncluttered by cliches. In case you haven't taken the hint and bought a copy, there's also a 1961 trio with Cecil Taylor in all his Errol Garnerish splendor, chain whipping a 12 bar blues on a tribute to bassist Oscar Pettiford. |
