CONDOR

I'm going to start this review off with a warning for you. If you don't like saxophone, or (very) long albums, I advise you to stay far away from this one. If neither of these elements bother you, then you'll most likely enjoy Yochk'o Seffer's newest album. In no way would I consider this Zeuhl - on the contrary, all of the tracks present (except on the third disc, which I'll get to in a bit) are jazzy duets for saxophone and piano, saxophone and bass, or saxophone and drums. As I said earlier - a LOT of saxophone. The quality of the performances of the all three discs of material here is great. All of the musicians who play on this one seem to be top-notch, though I haven't heard anything else by anyone except Seffer himself. As can be expected with an album of this length, though, the tracks start to sound similar over the course of things.

The third disc is a different story, though. The first track on it is a free jazzy, kind of classical influenced symphony - for fifteen saxophones! Definitely an interesting listen, and an enjoyable one for me. The second track here is a video performance of Ima. The music is great on this one too. I've listened to the original several times, and this is a good rendition of it.

This album is good, though it is definitely a challenging chunk of listening for most - most certainly, it's not a good starting point for Seffer's music, but it is a good one to pick up if you like the jazzier side of his material. Three stars seems fitting, as the first two discs do seem to drag a bit as they go on.