Review: CAB by Tony MacAlpine, Bunny Brunnel, and Dennis Chambers – Contemporary Jazz at Its Best.

Definitely a five out of five possible stars album.  This is contemporary jazz, and it is in my opinion the most competitive of all genres.  In the genre of contemporary jazz, you have to be a virtuoso to get recognized, and yet in my opinion it has some of the best music out there.  Don’t expect to find friends through this music.  And, don’t expect that listening to this music will make you popular in any way.  If you listen to contemporary jazz, you are into it because you appreciate the highest quality sophistication.  Lol!  And, Phil from Pantera thought that his music was underground.  Pantera is as big as Michael Jackson was when he released Thriller compared to CAB.  If you want to rebel by forsaking popularity, and favoring good music, CAB is an excellent choice.

There once was a time when jazz was popular, and flourishing.  That was back in the time of Miles Davis, or was it?  Personally, I like this album better than anything I have heard by Miles though I might be biased as a guitar player myself, and well Tony MacAlpine is one of the best guitarists out there.  Jazz evolved from the time Miles played it.  However, it essentially went underground after fusing with rock n’ roll.  Though this album isn’t swingin’, there isn’t a hint of usually talent deprived genre of rock n’ roll on this album though it might be considered to be the genre of fusion.  If you played this album for virtually anyone who thinks rock n’ roll is the best kind of music going, they will probably ask you to shut CAB off, or at least turn down the volume.  How uncool!

Some people just don’t get sophisticated music and that is a shame.  These are the same people that wouldn’t listen to a  rock band of chimps or people with Down’s Syndrome, by preference.  Why?  Because it would be impossible for a bunch of chimps to make music worth listening to by anyone’s standard.  So really, the philosophy of the people that like simple rock n’ roll unravels because every has their own idea of how simple it can get before it is no longer enjoyable.  As far as I am concerned, it is only human to like sophisticated music.  Why?  Because  of what makes a human a human from the biological perspective, and a big part of that is having a large intelligent brain compared to other species.  Yes, in case you didn’t know, the size of any brain is correlated to intelligence.  So, why some people fight this and choose dumb music over sophisticated music is beyond me.  Sure, I admit, I like the occasional contemporary pop or punk album, but it is not primarily what I prefer to listen to.  I prefer to listen to music rich in complexity and sophistication.  CAB fits the bill!