A.J. LOVE
Interplanetary Funk (Angel Magic Music)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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Guitarist A.J. Love and sax man Hanah Jon Taylor are a formidable team, ably assisted by Jeff Eckels on bass and Gerald Williams on drums. This quartet supply 28 minutes of adventurous music that doesn't necessarily defy categorization - it's jazz/rock fusion - but carries elements of other forms that make it more interesting than most of what's out there. Specifically, you have Love's electric guitar spraying the canvas with all shades of funk, rock and jazz, but mostly through a distorted and powerful tone that roots it firmly in a fusion feel, while Taylor takes his saxophone off the path and leaves the scales behind quite often, approaching avant-garde without quite reaching it. The combination of the two very different styles and philosophies is a winning one. Taylor, a member of Chicago's AACM (Artists for the Advancement of Creative Music) has played with some heavy company before, most significantly Miles Davis, and would probably be mistaken as the leader of this group in a blind listening test, but Love's work is solid and he's a talent on the rise, still learning and only getting better. His association with a player the caliber of Taylor, should it continue, will certainly bear some amazing fruit along the way. Final note: Yes, the CD is only 28 minutes long, but in an era when CDs that length are being sold at full price on a regular basis, it's nice to learn that this one goes for about 7 bucks. For all the scorching playing on this CD, that's a steal.

© 2002 - DJ Johnson