TEMPORAL ANALOGUES OF PARADISE (WITH SHAWN LANE / APT. Q-258)

Masterpiece in improvised jazz fusion!

This is one of the best or more probably just the best improvised jazz fusion album ever presented by one of the greatest trios of jazz musicians. Swedish exceptional bass player Jonas Hellborg, ingenious guitarist Shawn Lane (who died unfortunately in 2003) and the extraordinary drummer Jeff Sipe aka Apt. Q258 are presenting here in two pieces of about half an hour each some wonderful and just awesome jazz fusion that has been recorded during several live sessions in 1995.

The music on here is absolutely indescribable and almost not from this earth but though being fully improvised it's nevertheless very melodic and grooving. One has to listen to it in order to understand why it's supposed to be that incredibably superb and definitely one should take sufficient time without any disturbance to listen to it carefully for guaranteed full pleasure. Without any doubt an absolute must-have for anyone who likes fusion guitar.

BTW I own the re-release by BARDO which is to be preferred to the original one since it has a much improved sound quality!

This review is actually of the remastered Bardo Records version (blue cd cover) of the original 1996 Day Eight Records cd with Mao Tse-tung's picture hanging behind the three group members.

Anyway, here you have three virtuosos so confident in their ability and vision that they have the canasters to put out a cd with just two long (32-minutes and 27-minutes) improvised jams done in a live setting. And it all works beautifully. The album art is stark, the booklet notes are practically nonexistent, yet the title is this precocious and cerebral "Temporal Analogs of Paradise" which focuses the listener's attention on the MUSIC, and nothing else. For good reason.

Jeff Sipe (aka Apt. Q-258) has an eclectic background, with influences from Carl Palmer to the great jazz masters, and he's magnificent in this type of setting. Jonas Hellborg (arguably the most famous of the trio) has a great arsenal of styles and sounds, venturing from soft melodic to bop to growling fury - he's quite a talent. Together, they form a solid and knowing rhythm section that's not shy about taking their turns in the soloing spotlight.

After those two, one might be tempted to slight Shawn Lane as just "icing on the cake". But the former Black Oak Arkansas guitar wunderkind from Memphis takes what is already GREAT to...well, EXCEPTIONAL. I'd love to have a video of him playing, as he tends to sound like two (or even three!) guitarists at once in places. He can fly as fast as a heavy metal shredder, or alternately add beautiful background colors to the other soloists. For many of us, it was the unique sound and talent of Shawn Lane that originally drew us to this cd.

Tastefully done all around, this is phenomenal improvised jazz/rock fusion of the very highest order.

PURE MASTERPIECE OF IMPROVISIONAL JAZZ ROCK FUSION!This is the main idea concerning any appreciation about one trully fabulous album!There aren't enough words to express the worship that I have for this album!You think worship is a too big word?!Then ENDLESS ADMIRATION is better!This is the most fantastic trio formula in the history of jazz fusion,comparations with RETURN TO FOREVER or MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTER can be done,but the level of musical chemistry that is here,on this live album is stunning!HELLBORG- LANE and SIPE are beyond any musical boundary!They start from a tiny idea , a little musical idea without any core and then the alchemy that exists between this musicians plays an essential role...they feel each other at a level of perception which is almost extra sensorial!It's telepathic and magical!It's almost inhumane the frenzy and sensational capacity of SHAWN LANE to prove some out of this world technical skills,and on this live album he plenty offers magic momets!IT SMOKES LITERALLY!Everything flows in a perfect harmony on this album,and each member is an ace at his instrument!2 tracks of 30 minutes aproximatelly each and some rhythms and breaks,combined styles from free jazz to world music to hard rock tempos and the feeling thet what we hear it's performed live,that's almost scarry!We can hear solos of guitar.bass and drums and we are mesmerized by the capacities of three people to give a collective final result of amazing high quality music!HELLBORG is on this album stellar,as usual we can say... and delivers some slap technique solos that make KO any bass player and SIPE has some interventions ,both technically and musically amazing! Some of the solo's of LANE are almost unreal and unbelieveble to be explained,there are millions of notes and we ask ourselves if this man was from EARTH?Unfortunatelly he passed away from this world too sun,because he burned too fast,artistically speaking!He was before the time in music!I've heard hundreds of guitar players,but each time when I hear SHAWN LANE i am shocked,paralysed,striked!This guitar player was UNIQUE!!! 500 STARS to the most fabulous album of improvisional jazz fusion of all time!DIXIT!!!