Music Review: The Modern Jazz Quartet - Under the Jasmin Tree/Space (Original Recording Remastered) - Page 2

The next five tracks are from Space, and opening track "Visitor From Venus" certainly has a spacey sound; the engineer augmenting it with effects and playing with tapes. At one point, the vibes have a high pitch reminiscent of a child's music box. The humming returns a little past the halfway point at 3:35. The piano has some nice runs, evoking a comet soaring across the expanse of space, while the vibes steps back.

I enjoyed that visitor but can't say the same for the "Visitor From Mars" because that cursed bell returns. At this point in the CD, I consider making my own mixtape removing all the tracks where that damn bell is played. Gadzooks, it's maddening, and I can't believe no one else in the group thought so as it nearly drives me mad. Thankfully, it falls away at 1:38 but felt like it had been running much longer.

The space theme stops there, and the band returns to a more traditional jazz sound of rhythm section playing under with the vibe and piano leads. They start with Van Heusen/Burke's ballad "Here's That Rainy Day from the musical Carnival Of Flanders, then play Miljenko Prohaska's "Dilemma" in the same manner, although the latter gets a little spacey in the closing seconds as the cymbals ring out underneath the echo-effected vibes.

The original album concluded with their interpretation of Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo's "Adagio From Concierto De Aranjuez," which was written for classical guitar and orchestra. It's an intriguing take as the familiar tune is presented through their perspective, though it doesn’t fit with the rest of the album. Would have been better paired with other classical covers.

Likely in deference to their label bosses at the time, they recorded a version of the Beatles' "Yesterday" during the Space sessions, which has preciously been unreleased. It reminds me of Vince Guaraldi.

While these are talented men, the choice and execution of the bell in some songs has me rejecting this collection, almost with an air of hostility due to how off-putting it is. But don't let that keep you from checking out other songs on Under the Jasmin Tree and Space.

Article Author: Gordon S. Miller

Gordon S. Miller is the artist formerly known as El Bicho, the nom de plume he used when he first began reviewing movies online for The Masked Movie Snobs in 2003. Before that year was out, he became that site's publisher. …

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