Pleasant surprises: aren\u2019t they the best?<\/p>\n
Pleasant surprise has been my sustained reaction to the first solo album in 20 years from Trevor Rabin, the South African composer and multi-instrumentalist who in 1983 thrust temporarily defunct progressive rock pioneers Yes back into the spotlight with the thoroughly unexpected 90125<\/i>.\u00a0 Surprise, and admiration.<\/p>\n
Rabin\u2019s influence on my favorite prog band is one I have rarely enjoyed. While parts of 90125<\/i> were fun and dynamic, on the three albums that followed it, Rabin\u2019s arena-rock tendencies always felt out of sync with the band\u2019s progressive rock roots and at times actively grated on me.\u00a0 Not that there was ever any question of the man\u2019s talent \u2013 he\u2019s a triple-threat on guitar, bass and keyboards, he\u2019s an excellent singer, and based on his track record as a soundtrack composer for the past 17 years, he\u2019s pretty damned good at that, too.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Anyone who picks up his new solo disc anticipating Can\u2019t Look Away 2.0<\/i> (or its close cousin Big Generator 2.0<\/i>), will be more than a little disoriented when they give Jacaranda<\/i> a spin, though.\u00a0 This album, besides being almost entirely instrumental, features the most progressive, jazz-and-classically-influenced playing of Trevor Rabin\u2019s career \u2013 a faintly ridiculous statement when you consider he played a leading role for 12 years in one of the progenitors of the prog genre itself. <\/p>\n
While playing in Yes, though \u2013 something he never sought, and which was essentially thrust on him by his bandmates at that time, all members of previous incarnations of the group — Rabin always seemed to be fighting the band\u2019s musical heritage.\u00a0 By contrast, years later and in complete control of his creative destiny, he sounds perfectly comfortable playing obscure yet impossibly nimble acoustic numbers like the opening \u201cSpider Boogie,\u201d or terrifically complex time-signature shifting jams like \u201cMarket Street,\u201d or even dreamy, progressive jazz numbers like \u201cAnerley Road,\u201d which reminds me in places of Pat Metheny.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
There\u2019s hardly a trace on any of these tracks of the flash and\/or wankery that too often characterized Rabin\u2019s playing with Yes.\u00a0 Here, his lines are complex, evocative and unpredictable, and repeatedly value expression and exploration over repetition and volume.\u00a0 This is music meant to be played in a nightclub or a theater, not an arena, and it shows.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
With \u201cThrough The Tunnel,\u201d Rabin rocks out a bit, but still with a loose, exploratory feel. In fact, the track is structured like a prog-rock suite; all heavy guitars for the first two and a half minutes before segueing into the \u201ctunnel\u201d section, gentle electric piano that does a steady build into a completely different extended electric segment, which then falls back before shifting into a fourth section, a 75-second, rather Jeff Beck-esque jam.\u00a0 In the end, it feels a bit stitched-together, but it\u2019s still an exhilarating journey.<\/p>\n
The Jeff Beck analogy also turns out to be a key one.\u00a0 The fact that Beck\u2019s favorite bassist Tal Wilkenfield guests on \u201cAnerley Road\u201d feels like less than coincidence; the wide range of tones and styles and consistent virtuosity of this album definitely feels like a creative nod to Beck.<\/p>\n
And that diversity really is pretty remarkable.\u00a0 Take the middle four tracks here just for example: \u201cThe Branch Office\u201d is a brief but hard-charging, mostly acoustic-and-keys number with minor bluegrass shadings; \u201cRescue\u201d is a rearrangement of a piece Rabin first recorded for The Guardian<\/i> soundtrack, with the distinct airiness and melodrama of a motion-picture score; \u201cKillarney 1 & 2\u201d is a bite-sized solo piano concerto; and \u201cStorks Bill Geranium Waltz\u201d is an odd little nightclub-blues snippet barely a minute long. <\/p>\n
The range does telescope down just a little in the last third as Rabin moves more into the jazz realm.\u00a0 \u201cMe And My Boy\u201d features Ryan Rabin on drums as Trevor blends heavy electric, acoustic slide guitar and repeating keyboard patterns to hypnotic effect.\u00a0 The terrific \u201cFreethought\u201d feels like straight jazz, even if Rabin rather cheekily throws in brief flashes of arena rock riffage in a couple of places. \u00a0\u201cZoo Lake\u201d builds off a slumbering jazz rhythm section and sleepy Cajun acoustic slide, before delivering an expansive electric solo over the top that reminds me a bit of Ronnie Montrose\u2019s great take on the old Western soundtrack number \u201cTown Without Pity.\u201d\u00a0 Finally, closer \u201cGazania\u201d is an evocative acoustic guitar-and-piano piece with intense picking, another piece that feels like it wouldn\u2019t be out of place on a soundtrack.<\/p>\n
What this album spotlights again and again is Rabin\u2019s growth as a composer and player. He was always technically gifted, but during his time with Yes, his playing never seemed to have much feel or fluidity; it was all flash and muscle.\u00a0 Here Rabin demonstrates what a complete player he has become.\u00a0 The tracks themselves are disparate in approach, and some bits and pieces fit together stylistically better than others, but overall they paint a portrait of an artist who has come into his own in emphatic fashion. Jacaranda<\/i> is the best work of Trevor Rabin\u2019s career to date.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":30991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8869],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-42673","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-trevor-rabin","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42673"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}