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Gary Duncan Quicksilver: Live at Sweetwater/Shape Shifter/Live at Field Stone
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Voiceprint Records (VP538CD/VP540CD/VP546CD)
   Here we’ve got three albums by a band that the original Quicksilver Messenger Service guitarist Gary Duncan started up in the 80’s. The band’s jam inspired playing incorporates blues, jazz, Latino rhythms and the psychedelic overtones of 60’s San Francisco in a pleasant and entertaining way. Live at Sweetwater was apparently originally released in 2007 but I haven’t been able to find out when it was recorded. My bet is that in the 90’s. The sound quality is very good, although this still might be a two-track recording. In addition to Duncan the line-up includes Michael Lewis (keyboards and vocals), Greg Erico (drums) Jimmy Guyette (bass), John Bird (guitar and vocals) and Tony Menjivar (percussion). The album starts off with a really long version of ”Close Enuf 4 Jazz” that has some free-form jamming in the middle. Also ”Señor Blues” gets into jazzy jamming in the end, and after that they go for J. Hooker’s “Bottle Up and Go”. Then it’s time for over 13-minute-long “Wide Laig”, H. Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage” and finally a really long (18:34) version of “Inner City Blues” that also has some more mystical moods, a very percussive part and a section of the “Who Do You Love” classic. This album offers some great playing and groovy atmospheres and the cover painted by Duncan isn’t bad at all either.
Shape Shifter is a studio double album originally released in 1996 that features a vast number of musicians also including another ex-Quicksilver Messenger Service member Davis Freiburg. The album has as many as 28 songs on it, and I won’t go though them here, but the music differs from pretty traditional jazz to fusion, rock, blues, pop, funk and Latino and beyond. At times I’m reminded of Santana. I guess the most psychedelic thing is “Rex Dark” with its narration. The album also includes for example ”Close Enuf for Jazz” that has found its way into one of the Quicksilver live standards. Many of the tracks also have saxophone and lots of backing vocals. This is not exactly my kind of music, but works pretty well as entertaining background music.
Live at Field Stone includes a two-channel DAT recording of a gig at The Lysergic Voodoo Church Memorial Day 500 and Roadkill Barbeque at Headsburg, California, in may 1997. Despite the quite primitive recording technique the sound quality on the disc is good. The album begins with a bit boring instrumental jam called “Voodoo Boogie #1” and it also has a bit of “Spoonful” in it. “Then we hear Horace Silver’s ”Señor Blues” and John Bird’s ”Gator Bait”. “Bubba Jeans” is a very percussive number that also has vocals and then comes an eight-and-a-half-minute version of “Close Enuff for Jazz” and an over 15-minute version of “Maiden Voyage”. The disc is finished with a jam entitled “Fieldstone Shuffle” that has some nice solo guitar work and a good ending that actually is the best part of the album. I’m sure all the fans welcome these re-rereleases but personally I’m not that exited about them.
http://quicksilvermessengerservice.com |
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