Short Reviews [Levin / Minnemann / Rudess - 2013 - "LMR"]

There surely is no need to describe the musical careers and skills of Tony Levin, Marco Minnemann and Jordan Rudess, so I’m not going to bother, but given what they achieved over the years it is no surprise that I am just going to say that what we have here is an instrumental album which is certainly worth digging out. I only came across this 2013 album fairly recently, since when it has been hogging an inordinate amount of time on my player. Although all those involved have fearsome reputations for improvisation, this is actually an album of crafted material as opposed to everyone getting together in a studio and wondering what they are able to achieve. In many ways it reminds me of Colosseum II, but without the fearsome histrionics of Gary Moore as the melodic lead is of course the keyboards of Rudess who is to keyboard playing what shredders are to the guitar. Mind you, the only way for this to really work is if the rhythm section is up to scratch but given that Tony is probably the most in-demand bassist/stick player on the planet and Marco is renowned for his work in all fields of progressive rock and jazz, that is a given. Some instrumental albums rely on the listener spending an inordinate amount of time getting to grips with the thought processes of those involved, trying to get inside the mind to uncover what they were attempting to achieve, but this is an album which can be put on and enjoyed the very first time of playing. One soon moves past the skill of those involved and instead marvels at the sheer musicality of what is being portrayed, although with a great deal of complexity. It is light, yet heavy, complex yet easy to follow, stretches boundaries yet somehow stays within the mainstream. This is a delight from start to finish, and if, like me, you missed out when it was originally released, then this is an album definitely worth finding. It has also now been made available with an associated DVD, although mine is the single CD version.