GATEWAY: GATEWAY 2

John Abercrombie's music has always been about texture more than anything else; mood, feeling, color, and the slow expansion of time over space. It is electric jazz at its most sensitive, liberated from the trappings of fusion.

This follow-up to the classic 'Gateway' album features Dave Holland's sumptuous double bass filling the room with its deep sound and booming anchor, and the tight but loose Jack DeJohnette shooting with silky confidence on the traps. And then of course there's John Abercrombie, an instrumentalist like no other, putting the icing on the cake with notes and phrases thet seem to come from nowhere and resonate with light before disappearing again. The centerpiece of 'Gateway 2' has to be 'Nexus', a deft and infectious rhythm punctuated by soaring, often weeping solos. Abercrombie is able to *pull* notes and sounds out of his axe that lightly fill the air with painterly images-- vibrations having no discernible beginning or ending, as if his physical connection to the guitar is more important than his musical one. The result is a sensual, almost carnal impression of an artist in love with his muse and the private experience of that relationship recorded for us to peek into. A lovely third outing for this trio and an elegant addition to their catalog.