Jazz Views With CJ Shearn: Best albums of 2016
Jazz Views with CJ Shearn Best Albums of 2016 year end list.
A lot of impressive albums this year, if not all have been reviewed on the blog, they
certainly have been listened to. What I consider to be the crème de la crème this year.
Brian Kastan: Roll The Dice On Life (Kastan Records)
by http://contemporaryfusionreviews.com
ROLL THE DICE ON LIFE: Ev’ry once in a while, a promoter sends me an album they
may not even realize is destined to make musical HISTORY… think “Zappa 21st
Century”… Brian’s guitar is just killer.
http://thevinylanachronist.blogspot.com/2016/12/brian-kastans-roll-dice-on-life-on-
cd.html?spref=fb
Sometimes I get some strange stuff in for review. Sometimes I think people are just
messing with me, sending me copies of The Emperor's New Clothes just to see if I
break the fourth wall for a quick WTF. “We've got a box-set of Tibetan monks
farting...let's see if Phillips gives it a good review!” Then again, to stroke my own ego,
maybe I'm just one of the few people who can still listen to utter strangeness and cull
the artistic merits. Or, people are just messing with me. Yeah, that's it.
From the cover, Brian Kastan's Roll the Dice on Life looks like a fairly straightforward
jazz album. Brian, a perfectly normal-looking young man with a shaved head sits
cross-legged on the ground holding his guitar in front of a pair of steel doors that
feature a couple of stenciled-in dice. The cover also says that bassist Steve Rust,
drummer Peter O'Brien and vocalist Miles Griffith are featured. Seems legit. So I
popped this into my CD player and WTF? What's going on here? Is this for real?
What I heard, for about ten full seconds before I hit the stop button, was full-force
free-jazz-rock-funk, not too distant from what you'd hear on some of Frank Zappa's
more experimental releases, but with vocal improvisations that were, to say the least,
very interesting. I'm not talking about Ella Fitzgerald scatting in that lovely little-girl
voice of hers. I'm not talking about Liz Fraser and her ethereal and nonsensical
vocalizations on old Cocteau Twins albums. I'm not talking about the involuntary
humming and singing that comes from pure artistic expressions of someone like Glenn
Gould or Keith Jarrett. I'm talking vocal improvisations that sound like Dave Chappelle
doing his Edgar G. Robinson impersonation. I'm talking about the Cookie Monster
eating an entire jar of cookies while wearing a mic.
Ah, Miles Griffith. Who are you? The press release talks of his “rich provocative
vocals,” which are not the words I would use. Griffith turns out to be one of those
guys who's been a part of the NYC jazz scene for a couple of decades and has quite
the reputation as both a musician and a band leader. Kastan, Rust and O'Brien are
also
serious musicians with some serious chops. Kastan's also a licensed hypnotist—but I'll
bet he doesn't play this album for clients.
But here's the thing. Ten seconds of Roll the Dice on Life can be off-putting and
disconcerting. But if you hang in there, crawl into this particular crazy madman vibe,
you start to relax and inhabit the space. Your shoulders start to lower. You start
realizing that every minute or so, things really start to click between Miles' cartoonish
ramblings. Then before you know it the CD is over and wait! Look! There's TWO CDs!
Awesome! By the time you make it through to the end you'll have laughed quite a bit
because this odd, odd music does have a logic to it that's above and beyond the “raw
energy” of outlandish improvisation. Griffith even speaks actual words at certain
points, providing an even heavier anchor to the swirling and chaotic mix, especially
with the two closing cuts—”Black Lives Matter” and “Black Lives Matter 2” which
addresses all the craziness we've had to endure in 2016.
It's a grounded way to end an album like this, one that makes its own rules as you go
along. As for me, I liked it. As for you, well, there are two types of people—those who
hear ten seconds of Roll the Dice on Life and say “WTF?” and hit the stop button, and
those who hear the same ten seconds, say “WTF?” and then sit down and listen to the
whole thing. Or maybe, like me, you're a little of both.
CD Review by: http://longplay.blox.pl/strony/premiery2016.html
Guitarist and composer Brian Kastan is one of the independent artists who are for
themselves “and rudder sailor.” For years without being influenced zewnętrzym, follow
their own chosen course, which brings special effects. Proof of this are the numerous
concerts of the artist, along with fellow musicians, each attracting a loyal audience,
and discography already includes nine albums copyright. Apart from activities in the
framework of their own projects, the musician also taken a composer of music for
films and television programs, as well as a respected photographer.
At January 1, 2017 years scheduled premiere of the latest, this time: dual panel,
publishing guitarist: “Roll The Dice On Life”. The first CD is a set of nine premieres of
compositions, while the other filled with improvised instrumental pieces. The whole
was registered on 13, 14 and 26 July 2016. in Soundworks Recording Studio.
Oscillating around jazz, funk and Latin music leader, support for years Kastan friends
with artists: known for his work with, among others, Wynton Marsalis and Max Roach,
the eccentric singer Miles Griffith Featuring a unique technique bassist Steve Rust and
respected studio musician and concert, drummer Pete O'Brien, whose services are
used, among others, Edgar Winter and Roy Buchanan.
The album perfectly balanced proportions between the previously created structures,
composition, and loose variations, discovering new, unknown territory improvisation.
Here we find humor in the style of Frank Zappa and guitar virtuosity under the sign of
Robert Fripp, broken rhythms and hard guitar riffs. Admittedly, specific vocal and
scaty
Miles Griffith, not everyone can appeal to, but great enthusiasm felt in every sound,
makes it after a few minutes we succumb to the mood boards, giving caught up in this
crazy, slightly crazy atmosphere.
Brian Kastan in his isolated wykreowanym style does not remain indifferent to the
outside world. This is evidenced by at least the end of the album ( “Black Lives
Matter”), representing a musical commentary on the current racial and political events
in the US.
This is definitely not relaxing music, but full of emotion and tension rock, funk - jazzy
dynamic concoction cooked in the original, peculiar style.”
CD Review: http://www.midwestrecord.com/MWR1150.html
BRIAN KASTAN/Roll the Dice on Life: This electric guitarist finds the corner where
fusion and improv collide with each other but resolves the conflict with making this a
two disc set so you can appreciate the opposite ends without the middle turning
brown. A hypnotist by day, Kastan has a lot on his plate and is certainly down with
the art for arts sake side of the ledger. If you like your fusion with that unbridled Euro
edge running through it, this massive spontaneous set might just be your cup of tea.
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
http://www.jazzweekly.com/2017/01/brian-kastan-roll-the-dice-on-life/
Here’s one that will be tough to categorize. Is it rap? Funk? Rock? What you have is
guitarist Brian Kastan with a flexible team of Steve Rust/b and Peter O’Brien/dr. The
ringer is vocalist Miles Griffith, who uses his nasally voice for wild rants, rampages,
lyrics and voice’d meanderings that are like vocalese without melody. The team gets
rocking on “My Kids Dance Party” and “Who Knows” while going heavy metal on
“Goodbye.” Meanwhile, Griffith howls, chirps and jives through the material. Much of
the material is improvised in a “live” setting, with a two part “Black Lives Matter”
simply raucous rage. A sound track for Bernie Sanders fans?
http://www.empirestatenews.net/2016/11/07/roll-the-dice-on-life-from-brian-kastan-
is-no-risk-for-jazz-fusion-fans/
If you’re looking for a jazz-fusion new release that’s filled with robust, high energy
music, “Roll the Dice on Life” from guitarist/songwriter Brian Kastan might be just
your
taste. A double album that features vocals by Miles Griffith, this novel work is loaded
with free improvisation and raw instrumental play in each area, whether from Kastan’s
heated electric guitar, bassist Steve Rust’s strength, Peter O’Brien’s rich drumming, or
Griffith’s provocative voice. A talented quartet, the group has delivered a two-disc set
that is now available for fans across the world, and can most easily be found here.
Take a listen – it’s pretty cool.
www.EmpireStateNews.com
Grady Harp Jazz Review
Balancing the integrity of composed songs with the fierce energy activated by free
improvisation
Important on so many levels, Brian Kastan and Miles Griffith have a lot to say and
they
say it so well.
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Brian Kastan 
