Backlog

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Cat No: ESC37552

Release Date: 25 November 2016

Label: ESC Records

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 718750378323

Genres: Jazz Fusion

Description
In jazz guitar history, few have reinvented themselves as definitively as Steve Khan. A guitarists' guitarist, Khan's chops and writing were inimitable when emerging on New York's mid-to-late '70s"downtown" scene, but it was in 1981 with the first of three albums featuring a quartet monikered from its title, Eyewitness (all three reissued on BGO's important 2016 two CD set) , where a true paradigm shift occurred.

Featuring a more mature Khan shifting from guitar gymnastics to an emphatically collaborative approach, the guitarist placed the music - and collective group sound - first and foremost. Not that Khan had abandoned his technical acumen; if anything, in this highly simpatico quartet where he'd opted for the warmer, largely clean-toned Gibson 335 that has since become a signature, Khan also developed a far more sophisticated and formidable harmonic sensibility, rich with a dancing blend of open voicings, intervallic leaps and quirky, idiosyncratic yet vividly lyrical phrases. It was germination of a still-ongoing period of musical growth.

His fifth studio album since returning to solo recordings after nearly 10 years away, Backlog continues Khan's innovative reimagining of material rarely (if ever) afforded a Latin treatment with, for the first time, electric guitar front and center. Applying the complex polyrhythms and multiplicity of rhythmic stylings found in Latin/Afro-Cuban music to original material, obscurer jazz selections, and evergreen jazz and Great American Songbook standards, Backlog forms a trilogy of sorts with the similarly superb Parting Shot (2011) and Subtext (2014). Further building upon concepts introduced more definitively The Green Field (2005) and Borrowed Time (2007), Backlog's music - impeccably selected and arranged - also features some of Khan's best playing to date.

Steve Khan (guitar)
Rubén Rodríguez (baby bass & electric bass)
Mark Walker (drums)
Marc Quiñones (timbal, bongo, & percussion)
Bobby Allende (conga, bongo)
Guest artists:
Randy Brecker (trumpet – #1)
Bob Mintzer (tenor sax – #7)
Mike Mainieri (vibes – #5)
Rob Mounsey (keyboards – #2,6,7,9; orchestrations – #3,6,10; orchestral arrangements – #4,8)
Tatiana Parra (voice – #10)
Tracklisting