Matt Renzi, Jimmy Weinstein & Masa Kamaguchi - Dream Life (2001)

As a follow up to their debut recording, the award-winning "Lines and Ballads", Fresh Sound New Talent presents "Dream Life" a fantastic new CD featuring tenor saxophonist Matt Renzi, drummer Jimmy Weinstein and bassist Masa Kamaguchi.

The New York based group has come up with a very interesting development from the previous outing. The album can be likened to a programmatic conceptual piece in the form of pure jazz improvisation. The trio has developed a repetoire that honors, not as a tribute, but as a point of departure, the compositions of Ornette Coleman, Denny Zeitlin, Tony Scott, Carla Bley and Dave Brubeck. The interpretations are detached and deconstructed from their original forms.

The program is set up as statement, variation, recapitulation and closes with a reprise of the statement, acheived in the sequencing of the tunes. The recording represents a develpoment of the trio¹s concept of playing 'around the tune' as opposed to 'inside' or 'outside'. This way the trio pumps fresh air into the compositions, and gives the listener a variation on some seldom played selections. These would include Tony Scott's beautiful ballad 'Israel', Denny Zeitlin's, 'Quiet Now', Dave Brubeck's 'The Duke', Carla Bley's 'Ida Lupino' and Ornette Coleman's 'All My Life' and 'Blues Connotation'.

The one 'standard' standard, 'If I Should Lose You' is contrasted by the one original composition, the title track 'Dream Life' by Jimmy Weinstein.

The Album is beautifully recorded by Brooklyn ace, Joe Marciano at Systems 2 studio, and the cover art and design was conceived by Barcelona based artist, Jessica Weinstein. The whole combination of the production makes this Fresh Sound New Talent CD, a very special one.