Steve Khan | Got My Metal – [Evidence, 1997]

Steve Khan, Got My Mental
The problem with assessing the quality of cd’s is that artists often have different phases in their career, or different kinds of output for their talent. Khan, for example, had a “fusion” phase (early Khan material and the band
Eyewitness), has a Latin jazz side, is a superlative sideman and session player (look at, e.g., Steely Dan’s
Gaucho album), and has real bonafides as a “
straight ahead” jazz player.
My favorite format in jazz is the trio, particularly the jazz guitar trio. Khan has done several albums in this vein and Got My Mental is my favorite (it’s more or less a trio). The songs are perfect examples of trio playing where the interactivity is so complete that one almost forgets there are separate players. Khan’s melodies are sing-able (a forgotten art in so much guitar jazz) and his solos speak with phrases both lovely and enigmatic. (Is Khan the Wallace Stevens of the guitar solo? Not a bad analogy.) Here, too, John Patitucci really shines; one of the first albums where he leaves the “hot shot fusion bass player” thing behind and lets Khan’s melodism guide him beyond his technical habits. And Jack DeJohnette–what can be said? He is a drummer’s drummer, the perfect third point in this triangle.
Without a doubt, this is a “Desert Island Disc.” Check it out and you’ll be singing it for the rest of the month. —David Hildebrand
..:: Source: Amazon.com ::..
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