I don’t often recommend recordings in these pages, as people’s tastes vary greatly — but maybe I should, as I have, in the course of thirty years as a recording engineer, been exposed to an awful lot of good music. So here’s one, if you’re interested.
There is a guitarist, well known among the cognoscenti as a uniquely creative player and composer, by the name of Wayne Krantz. I first met him in the late 80’s, when he was playing on, and co-producing, some albums I recorded for the guitarist Leni Stern (who has made some mighty fine albums of her own, by the way).
But the record I want to tell you about is called Long To Be Loose, and was made in 1993. It is a simple, unembellished production — just electric guitar, electric bass, and drums, with nothing added after the fact — and was recorded in New York in two long days.
The music is impossible to categorize: harmonically exotic, rhythmically complex, fierce, propulsive, and always changing. I can absolutely guarantee that you have never heard anything like it, because to the best of my knowledge there is nothing like it. The players joining Wayne, bassist Lincoln Goines and drummer Zach Danziger, are oustandingly gifted musicians, and the interplay between the members of this virtuosic trio is just astonishing. Finally, there is Wayne’s guitar playing, which I won’t attempt to describe; you simply have to listen.
If you love music — in fact, if you appreciate art, period — you should get this record. You can order it here.