Magic

Collection Contents

#		Title	Length
1		Magic	8:13
2		Ballad	7:51
3		To Love Again	5:24
4		A.Z. Lives	7:16
5		Dream	8:35
6		Song	1:41
7		Blues On Mars	8:44
8		Invitation	11:29
9		Nefertiti	3:02
10		Afro Blue	8:58

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Description	Amount
Bitmunk Marketplace Service	USD $0.98
CD Baby Artist Royalty	USD $5.97
CD Baby 9% Digital Distribution Cost	USD $0.54
Bitmunk Download Service	USD $0.92
Bitmunk MicroPayment Service	USD $0.01
Total	USD $8.40

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Description

Personnel:
Andrew Cheshire - guitar
Ron Mclure - bass
Billy Hart - drums
Dominic Duval - bass
Jay Rosen - drums

Recorded 1/27 & 9/18/99
Cover Art: Andrew Cheshire
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There aren't that many topflight jazz guitarists - in comparison to saxophonists, for instance, or pianists. Most guitarists gravitate to rock, for obvious reasons, which makes the discovery of a really fine guitar player uncommonly welcome. Andrew Cheshire doesn't have the name power of Bill Frisell or Pat Metheny, but he plays on the same very high level. Cheshire has a manifest need to stretch, as this album makes pointedly clear. On the first five cuts, Cheshire plays with bassist Ron McClure and drummer Billy Hart, who - with Richie Beirach and Dave Liebman - made up Quest, one of the best post-bop outfits of the '80s and '90s. On the last five tracks, Cheshire is teamed with bassist Dominic Duval and drummer Jay Rosen, a consummate free jazz rhythm section that's recorded literally dozens of albums together over the past several years. The contrast between the two groups is marked and instructive. With McClure and Hart, Cheshire plays an infinitely elastic music. His modal/tonal originals are tuneful and swinging. One could hardly imagine a more tasteful rhythmic accompaniment than that of Hart and McClure. Their grace is utterly appropriate to Cheshire's melodic concept. A different kind of grace is presented by the Duval/Rosen side. These two are far less inclined to adhere to any strictures of time or tonality; their bag is free playing in its more extreme forms. Of course, there are two sides to that coin: Rosen and Duval play a convincing (if very loose) blues behind Cheshire on the aptly titled "Blues on Mars." Interestingly, Cheshire chose to play standard jazz tunes with this unrepentantly free rhythm section; on tunes like "Invitation," "Nefertiti," and "Afro Blue," the contrast between Cheshire and his mates is interesting and entertaining. Cheshire is clearly more comfortable with the music than Duval, but the latter does a credible version of the tunes, adding to the music an unpredictability that is, after all, the essence of jazz. Rosen swings just as hard whether playing in or out of time. Duval and Rosen's unhinged style is held together nicely by Cheshire's sense of each tune's form and harmony. The point should be made that Cheshire's range actually requires that he make records like this; there are so few players whose skills span the spectrum, a musician as flexible as Cheshire must adapt himself to what his sidemen do best. He's done that here, and in the process made a very fine album. Anyone who professes to love jazz guitar and hasn't checked out Cheshire is missing the boat.

- Chris Kelsey, All-Music Guide
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