Michael Shrieve - Two Doors (Deep Umbra) (1995)

#Musicaparaelencierro. Hace ya tiempo el Mago Alberto nos trajo un disco del ex baterista de Santana, pero que seguramente sorprendió a muchos por su eclecticimo musical. Ahora Carlos el Menduco revive este lejano posteo para volver sobre un músico ecléctico y una obra emblemática en su discografía. Los invito a entrar al post y leer el comentario del Mago, escuchar la música de Shrieve y agradecer al Menduco por su buena onda.

Artista: Michael Shrieve

Álbum: Two Doors
Año: 1995
Género: Jazz rock
Nacionalidad: EEUU

Carlos Santana ha definido el estilo de Shrieve de la siguiente forma:

Le debo mucho a Michael; El fue el que me dio a conocer a John Coltrane y Miles Davis. Yo solo quería tocar blues, hasta que Michael vino. Me abrió los ojos y mis oídos y mi corazón a muchas cosas. Algunos baterías solo tienen toques, pero Michael Shrieve tiene visión. Michael es como una caja de lápices de cera; tiene todos los colores.

Michael Shrieve le entra tanto al rock, al jazz rock y al jazz contemporáneo, y ha trabajado con músicos como George Harrison, Mick Jagger y Pete Townshend, encarando varios proyectos individuales, pero vamos con las palabras del Mago Alberto que es quien trae éste disco.

Antes del desembarco polaco, vamos a presentar tres trabajos tres de Michael Shrieve, aquel pibe que se hiciera conocer al mundo con sus jóvenes 17 años en el Festival de Woodstock junto a Carlos Santana y Cia. en aquella época de los hippies, sucios hippies que inundaban la costa oeste de USA y que dieran impulso al Flower Power y que seguro MS navegaba no solo en la banda Santana, sino en aquel mundillo del Sexo, Droga y Rock and Roll ¿remember?, bueno aquel muchachito creció, y ahora es un viejo choto que esta quemando los últimos cartuchos en su vida dedicada 100% a la batería, este señor se encargó de deambular y coquetear con diversos estilos musicales, por ese motivo vamos a presentar las incursiones junto al sueco Jonas Hellborg, Buckethead, Shawn Lane, y el aleman Klaus Schulze, músicos muy disímiles entre sí pero con el inagotable talento de todos, supieron dar forma a proyectos muy interesantes que vamos a desmenuzar de a poco.
El primero de ellos es junto a Jonas Hellborg, del cual ya dimos cuenta en el blog con aquel impresionante disco llamado Art Metal, y también con la colaboración de Shawn Lane, niño prodigio que dejara muy joven este mundo; este trabajo titulado "Two Doors" es básicamente instrumental y con vuelo propio, aún cuando no haya sido una banda formal, aclaro este punto debido a que Lane es protagonista casi absoluto, y el sonido dulce, ultraprofundo y atractivo de la guitarra va marcando el disco y lo hace por demás disfrutable.
El sonido artesanal de Shrieve en la batería, en especial en el tambor, también aporta su cuota de personalidad, y el bajo de Hellborg es tan personal que oír esos dialogos musicales con Lane son de antología.
Este es un disco doble del cual solo vamos a presentar la primera parte (no me pregunten por qué).
Cabezones, esta trilogía Shrieve es realmente muy interesante y es bueno saber que aquel muchachito de Woodstock se subió al tren para no abandonarlo y aún sigue en las vias.

Mago Alberto

Former Santana drummer Michael Shrieve's 1995 release Two Doors is appropriately titled, for it is really two albums in one, with two different trios providing the music. The first half of the record, subtitled "Deep Umbra," features Shrieve with guitarist Shawn Lane and bassist Jonas Hellborg performing eight jazz-rock compositions full of catchy themes and fiery improvisations. Lane is, simply put, one of the most technically gifted guitarists ever to pick up the instrument, and he records far too obscurely and infrequently. It is to his great credit that he never displays his abilities gratuitously, but instead carefully measures them out for maximum impact. He is a consummate musician. The same could be said about Hellborg, who not only holds down the bottom end with his sensitive yet powerful bass, but also shares co-writing credits for seven of the eight songs that he appears on. The second half of the record, subtitled "Flying Polly," features Bill Frisell and Wayne Horvitz. This half of the record is jazzier and more avant-garde than the first half, and frankly doesn't work nearly as well. There are moments where some of the rockabilly jazz elements that Frisell and Horvitz explored in John Zorn's Naked City come to the foreground, but, besides that, most of this portion of the record sounds flat and uninspired. It is a shame that this had to be the case, especially considering how good the Lane-Hellborg trio is. However, Shrieve's drums are very nicely recorded, and he always plays the most appropriate thing for any given song, never showboating or otherwise distracting from the integrity of the composition. There is much merit in this frustratingly inconsistent album, and for fusion fans it is worth searching out.

Daniel Gioffre

Jonas Hellborg has a strange predilection for wierdos. He chooses odd people to do albums with. Really, really odd. Take Paul Hanson. A bassoon player (that’s right, it WAS mentioned in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner) who likes using guitar effects on the bassoon. Mad. Also take his guitarist friend on this album, Shawn Lane, who sadly passed away in 2001.
He plays guitar like his momma just died. No, scratch that. He plays guitar like his entire family died. In an airplane crash. From a height of 35,000 feet. Into a vat of molten lava. Simply put, he is up there with the maddest guitar players ever. Vai, Satch, Michaelangelo, Buckethead, you name them……
Mercifully, he also has the good graces to lay back and play some ‘relatively’ slow lead stuff and supports Hellborg‘s lead outings very well. Speaking of Hellborg, he is excellent as always, and he tries not to compete with Lane. Instead he focusses on being solid and full sounding, even while playing lead. I’m particularly fond of his super low notes on the lovely and laid back “Caress of Lilith”. He does further sub-bass experimentation on “The Smiling Tarshism”, which is probably the Martian phrase for ‘drum solo with sub-bass accompaniment’. I love it. This is the first time that I actually like his finger-picked acoustic bass tone, which I had earlier denounced as ‘ponderous’.
A good thing about two people like Hellborg and Lane with extremely strong musical personalities is that one player’s style feeds and bleeds into the other player. So this is the first time I’ve heard a metal edge to a Hellborg record. Perhaps this led the recording of Art Metal with Swedish nutcase guitarist Mattias Eklundh. On the other hand, there are definitely Indian Classical flavoured tracks like “Baraji” and “Deep Umbra”.
All this is all fine and good, but I have a few problems with this album. For some reason, this album does not feel as well thought through as his other solo efforts. His other works are great not only in their quality and playing but also in their variety. Abstract Logic has solo Piano, solo Drum and solo Bass tracks, among other completely instrumental excursions. But here, the sound is pretty much identical in terms of guitar sound over bass sound, except the willfully different “Baraji”, “Caress of Lilith” and the beautiful “The Smiling Tarshism”.
Another major problem is that this cannot be listened to more than once. At the point of writing this sentence, I was two thirds through the album, and I had difficulty remembering one memorable groove from the past 45 minutes or so. Its a pity, and its part of what leads me to think not much thought has gone into it. Its quite easy to believe that the three players-all virtuosos in their respective instruments- decided to get together and just wing it. Unfortunately, improvisation can either be a beautiful cosmic thing for the ages, or a steaming pile of horse crap, depending on the way the stars have aligned. This one is somewhat towards cosmic beauty, but falls way short. Its good, but it doesn’t really sound right.
P.S. – Though this is technically a Michael Shrieve album featuring Hellborg and Lane, I’m filing this under Hellborg for convenience and continuity.

thatdoesntsoundright

Lista de Temas:
1. Stellar Rays
2. Deep Umbra
3. Sorcerer
4. Baraji
5. Caress of Lillith
6. Smiling Tarshishm
7. Juvalamu
8. Palace of Dreams

Alineación:
- Michael Shrieve / Bateria
- Shawn Lane / Guitarra
- Jonas Hellborg / Bajo