"Wayne's Playground" is a project based on the music of the great american saxophone player Wayne Shorter. The jazz trio displays original arrangements of his most famous and celebrated tunes, a humble tribute to his music, from the Miles Davis' quintet to the Weather Report's years. The goal is to fully and deeply understand the intimate connection between the form (always changed, dismantled and reassembled using sudden breaks, free improvisations, odd rhythmic figures) and the melody, the true heart of his work as a composer.
Released 40 years after Orson Welles' infamous radio version of the H.G. Wells tale, Jeff Wayne's musical version of War of the Worlds straddles old-style radio drama and contemporary orchestrated narratives by Rick Wakeman and David Bedford. And while it lacks the sophisticated arrangements of, say, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, it does boast an impressively odd cast – this may be the only time that a member of Thin Lizzy worked with Richard Burton, and the presence of Julie Covington and the Moody Blues' Justin Hayward in very attractive singing roles attest to its pop/rock aspirations. It's Burton's sonorous tones that sustain this work; his frequent solo narrations are eminently listenable, whereas sections featuring dialogue with other characters often come off as a bit stilted. The music is competent studio rock, and "Horsell Common and the Heat Ray" does strike just the right balance between Burton's narration and an accompaniment built around a buzzsaw guitar riff…
The re-mastering and release of Chuck Wayne's String Fever should begin to focus attention on a musician who was not only a brilliant guitarist but also a subtle and significant composer/arranger. On this recording Wayne became the first jazz guitarist to front a big band. He is the main soloist. He also conducted and arranged all of the compositions. Wayne's solo work, rising above an inspired band, is as good as jazz guitar has been caught on tape as he swings from be-bop to ballads to latin rhythms with a masterful grace and assurance. The extra treat is that the original album was beautifully recorded, and has been exquisitely re-mastered onto CD…