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Artist: Tom Gavornik
Label: Already There Music
Time: 9 tracks / 56:37
Eclectic, esoteric, obtuse modern jazz guitar. Tom Gavornik’s newest release, A Long Time Ago, certainly fits that description. There comes a time when you listen to a recording, scratch your head, and decide that maybe you just don’t get it. Certainly, Gavornik’s reputation precedes him: his impressive bio states, “…over forty years of experience as a teacher, producer/arranger, and jazz guitarist/composer to his professional credit. He has both the respect and admiration of radio personalities and music publications worldwide. Radio play and strength in CD sales throughout America and Europe have been abundant as well….” While his early influences were The Beatles, Clapton, Beck and Hendrix, it’s easier to find references in his current work to his later heroes – Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Wes Montgomery and Frank Zappa (but don’t look for Zappa’s energetic, complex compositions here). These songs lean more toward unusual scales and odd timings than most rock and rolls ears are used to hearing. The melodies are strange and haunting, usually played by a pure, un-processed guitar, against rhythms that start and stop in odd places. Some tracks are fairly stark, featuring rhythm and lead guitar playing counterpoint to a high-pitched synth sound, while other tracks feature a traditional jazz combo. I can attest to the fact that some of these songs will follow you like a disturbing shadow that you can’t quite define ….they also might become annoying and difficult to listen to, especially by innocent family members who share the same space as your CD player. Perhaps the most conventional sounding track is “White Hats/Black Hats (Cowboy Blues),” which straddles jazz and blues but still manages to go to some pretty strange musical places.
Although this is an instrumental project, Gavornik’s faith is very much in evidence through song titles like, “He is Mysterious (The Invincible Christ)” and “God Smiles on Me Too.” The last song, “March of the Innocent,” is dedicated “to all incest survivors and victims of sex abuse and violence.”
While this album can be called ‘interesting’ to the open-minded listener who’s willing to try some very unfamiliar modern jazz, many others will simply wonder what the fuss is all about. If atonality and abstract musical structures in a small combo setting are something you want to explore, then you might want to try out _A Long Time Ago_.
By Bert Saraco
www.myspace.com/expressimage
http://expressimagephoto.tripod.com
Add half a tock (at least) if you’re into abstract, experimental modern
jazz