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.

Two years after Gatewa from 76y, the same trio comes back to record the second tome of Gateway, this one being a bit more even affair, but on the whole, it's a quieter album. The only difference line-up-wise is that Jack is also playing some piano on some tracks. Like all Abercrombie albums before, this album is produced by the ECM label owner Manfred Eicher and the typical type of artwork is given, this time a photograph collage od clouds and an exotic door..

Starting out on the stupendous the slow developer 16-mins+ Opening, a joint composition that stands out easily as the album highlight, the album gives many reasons to think that the first Gateway was only training ground for thiis present album; The only slight remark is that I wish that Holland and DeJohnette's respective solos were either a duo or not overstaying its welcome, but this is minute. Rounding up the album's first side is Holland's Reminiscence, which sets the tone for most of the rest of the album, a very quiet affair.

Indeed, the flipside opens on the equally quiet Abercrombie Sing song, where his fluid electric guitar sails smoothly over an almost-windless summer day. Dave Holland's Nexus is probably the album's most exciting track, and certainly the second highlight of Gateway2. The electric guitar and Holland's bass take on a slightly Moorish flavour, letting us dream of the Sahara infinite spaces. The closing Dejohnette Blue is a mainly piano piece, played by Jack himself, even if Holland and Aber do much to enlighten the Jarrett- inspired piano: let's not forget Jack and Dave were present on most of Keith's 70's works.

Amother typical album of Abercrombie's early "solo" career, one that managed to play on ambiances more than on pure musical grounds, but however good are the three musicians, I find that their line-up is somewhat reductive of the trio's overall capacity. Indeed, had they used more keyboards (Hammer anyone?) and formed a quartet, there would've been so much more to listen to. .