On Saturday, February 22, 1992 at 3:12:45 PM UTC-5, stu...@vax1.umkc.edu wrote:

In article <22620@scorn.sco.COM>, graham@ug.cs.dal.ca (Michael Graham) writes:

I wrote this review for our university paper, but I need some feedback. I am not sure that I did a good job of reviewing an album that I find pretty well perfect. Any constructive criticism would be great.

thanks - it will be printed early next week.

its a good review. print it. a bit technical, but it justifies itself with an
excellent explanation of the music.
sharon turner, conservatory writer-University News, University of Missouri-Kansas City

Uzeb: 99.43104% Brilliant

Michael Graham
Music
Uzeb
World Tour 90

Ever heard of a band called Uzeb? If not, that's understandable - very few people seem to know about them. You may have seen them on Much Music. They have that video with all the milk. It gets played about once every month as a time killer. They seem to get no exposure at all. This is truly sad considering that they are Canadian and are one of the most interesting instrumental bands around.

Uzeb is a Montral trio who formed in 1977, released their first album in 1981, and have been playing their unique flavour of fusion ever since. The band consists of Paul Brochu (percussion), Alain Caron (basses), and Michel Cusson (guitars and main composer).

The band embraces technology, using midi instruments and such, but this is never used as a crutch of any sort; just an extension to their already phenomenal musical abilities. On World Tour 90 for example, Cusson will occasionally play keyboard parts through his guitar, and on the song "Aprs Les Confidences" Alain Caron plays a beautiful flute solo through his six string fretless bass.

World Tour 90, Uzeb's latest release, is a collection of recordings from their last tour of Europe (where they find the most popularity), and it shows the band at their best. Most of the songs off of this double cd are from the two previous Uzeb albums Noisy Nights and Uzeb Club. The songs can sometimes run as long as 14 1/2 minutes, but they never seem to drag. In addition to their own material they also do covers of "Blue'N Green" by Miles Davis, and Donna Lee (acoustically) by Charlie Parker.

I cannot emphasize enough how musically brilliant these three guys are. Alain Caron's fretless solos on such songs as "New Hit", "Perrier Citron" and "Loose" are beautiful. His tone, fluidity, vibrato and chording are truly amazing. Caron is no slouch on the fretted bass either. He has the slap/pop technique down. "Wake Up Call", for example, is the funkiest bass playing I have ever heard (yes, I've heard everything by the Red Hot Chili Peppers). A further testimony to his bass playing abilities is heard on "Donna Lee" where Caron plays some brilliant acoustic bass.

Michel Cusson is a very talented guitarist to say the least. His playing on World Tour 90 is original and diverse. He is well versed in jazz, rock and funk guitar and he is, for the most part, responsible for the composition of the 18 songs on this double cd. His playing throughout the album is great. "Home", "Uzeb Club" and "Loose" are some standouts.

Paul Brochu is a very solid, tight jazz and rock drummer with a lot of finesse. He really shows his stuff on "Riff 55" and "Not Even the Shadow of the Tail of a Lizard". He also makes excellent use of his array of "effects" to create intense grooves and jungle-like rhythms on some songs.

So we have three god-like instrumentalists - so what? Technical virtuosity does not imply great music. In the case of Uzeb and World Tour 90 it does! Uzeb works as a band extremely well. All three musicians combine their talents to make each song as great as possible. And the songs are great! In addition, the variety of songs is important to point out. Uzeb is not a talented, but lifeless band. Some of their songs are wild, with screaming guitar solos and slap bass. Others are the opposite. The rest of the songs lie somewhere in between.

The only complaint that I could find after scrutinizing/reveling in this 116 minute double cd many times is that Michel Cusson's solo at the end of "Spider" is very disjointed. He gets into Eddie Van Halen mode for a minute and then seems to lose it for about 40 seconds. Maybe too much adrenalin...I don't know. So that is my sole complaint about Uzeb's World Tour 90. I tried very hard to find something to complain about too! To add some more icing to the cake, this is the highest quality live recording I have heard (DDD for those with cd players). So, overall if you can put up with 40 seconds of not so great guitar soloing (out of 116 minutes of brilliant music!) buy this double cd!

--
Michael Graham | Lifdu i lukku, en ekki i krukku. graham@ug.cs.dal.ca | (Live in luck, but not in a jar.)

* Nice review Michael - I have been a huge fan since the early 80's and remain so today. Uzeb is pure musical magic :)

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