The Rosenberg Trio- Roots (2007)

I'm a big fan of jazz, and I'll extend that even further and say that my favorite type of jazz is the gypsy style that Django Reinhardt pioneered.  Enter The Rosenberg Trio, with their fast acoustic gypsy guitar driven solos with great clarinet playing and wonderful double bass it shows that great jazz can be played fast, clean and greatly structured. 

The Rosenberg Trio, led by lead guitarist Stochelo Rosenberg is, without a better description, one of the best jazz trios today.  Roots, released in 2007, doesn't have even 1 track that lacks sheer greatness.  I can't say enough about this album.  Less than an hour long, Roots plays all the way through really fast.  Each track has perfect examples of skilled jazz song structure as well as top of the line ability.  If you're into music, or play it, there is a chance that you might feel envious of those bad ass jazz guitarists, and this album has musicians who you'd be willing to make a pact with the Devil to be able to mimic.  Every song on this album has solos that will blow your mind, on all the instruments being played, as well as a flow and energy that isn't easily matched.  My favorite track on this album is Last Minute Swing, which has an intricate flow of solos between the guitar and clarinet, and makes me feel their energy from the first strum of the guitar. 

The Rosenberg Trio are virtuosos, seriously, there are very few musicians that can portray this kind of skill; and to top it off, the instruments are all acoustic, so there is no way for them to "hide" behind any electric instrumentation.  There are many albums to choose from if you want to explore their sounds, and any one of them is a great place to start.  Roots just ended up being my favorite, although their album with Bireli Lagrene is a definite must-have as well.  Listen to them, see them live, download some of their pirated music online, whatever is your avenue, but do what you can to give them a try. 

Official score- 4.25/5

The Trio- Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass & Niels-Henning Pedersen (1973)

Wow!  What else can I say but, Wow?!  This is a straight up freakin' great live jazz release.  If you're into jazz, or even if you know the big names in jazz, then you'll know the 3 musicians who are in this recording: Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass & Niels-Henning Pedersen.  I can go on and on regarding the legendary status and ability of all 3 of these musicians, but there is no need, and in fact chances are they will have other reviews within the lifetime of this blog; just keep in mind, these are PREMIER jazz musicians!

The Trio is a live recording, with 5 tracks with a running time of 40 minutes.  Now, each track, I mean each freakin' track is amazing.  Solos from all 3 musicians- Peterson on Piano, Pass on Guitar and Pederson on Bass.  Each song has the exclamations of a gracious crowd that is more than enthused to see this "who's who" performance.  As you listen to this you can see the darkened, smoke filled jazz club with these 3 icons on stage smiling and having a good time, under the stage lights.  Within each track the solos flows seamlessly from one musician to the other, all with ovations from the audience.  Seriously, there are only a few other jazz releases with this kind of quality playing from such legendary performers.  The piano, guitar and bass are fast and intricate and as the tempo goes on its usual jazz based roller coaster ride, you can mentally picture the sweat running into their eyes as they move in accordance to what they are playing, all whilst changing leads and albeit the occasional drink.

I am a jazz fan, not an aficionado,  but I still know a decent amount about jazz, and even if I didn't the newest of jazz newbies would recognize the magnitude of this release.  I am a fan of this album, and the works of these musicians, so this review is a little biased.  If you like/love jazz, you should have this and if you're just getting into jazz, or dipping your toes in its waters, then grab this asap.  My only complaint is the volume level of the guitar and bass during certain parts of these tracks are a little low, but as far as live albums go, this recording is spot on.

Official score-4.25/5