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- gemini mikeJoined:CD by Martin Taylor and…
CD by Martin Taylor and David Grisman's Acoustic Jazz Quartet, called "I'm Beginning to See the Light.," 1999.
Taylor and Grisman go at a bunch of true standards (Autumn Leaves, Cheek to Cheek, Lover Man, Willow Weep for Me, Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered...etc.) It is good because it does focus Grisman a little, like Garcia used to do, and bring David down from his free form "Dawg" jamming. It's nice, like at a Dead concert, when the riffing resolves into a recognizable song and melody. On the other hand, maybe you can say that Grisman is excessively disciplined and sticks too closely to the melody here rather than riffing and improvising as much as many jazz players do - could have been a happy medium with his Dawg somehow - maybe he felt a little more free to do that in his collaborations with Jerry. But this is good. Great music for dinner or reading and you raise your head every once in awhile at a nice riff or return to well known swing melodies. And danceable if you know your Lindy. That's probably what was intended. Jerry would have appreciated it, I think - Jerry himself in his last interviews said he was going to see Steffan Grappelli doing this sort of riffing on standards before both of them unfortunately passed on. And of course Jerry was named after Jerome Kern, or so I heard once upon a time, so these standard would be right up his alley.