Artist: Theo Travis

Date of Release: 02/06/2003

Catalogue no: 33JAZZ083

Label: 33Jazz

Price: £12

Add to Shopping Basket

Track Listing

Theo Travis’ second solo CD, View from the Edge, marked his arrival as a major force in British jazz as a player and particularly as a composer. It was originally released in 1994. Theo’s music has a strong personal identity, featuring strong colours and elements of other musics including the more experimental end of rock. The album was described in the All Music Guide (USA) as a successful example of “progressive jazz”. The album was voted Best British CD of 1994 in a Reader/Critics Poll in Jazz on CD magazine.

View from the Edge - Deluxe Edition is a 2-CD set comprising the original album digitally remastered, and a second CD comprising 3 alternative takes, 2 reconstruction/remixes and a live track from the Jazz Cafe, London, from the View from the Edge tour. The inclusion of a whole extra CD of music has the benefit of not disturbing the shape and flow of the original album. Each of the alternative takes offers something different from the corresponding original album track. The reconstruction/remixes – including one by composer/producer and Soft Machine bassist Hugh Hopper - involve reassembling the pieces by taking just the original recorded instrumental performances and looping, filtering, sampling, moving parts around and rebuilding and remixing the tracks from their component elements. The result is two imaginative and inspired new tracks offering a new perspective on the corresponding original tracks. The packaging has also been improved and expanded. It is all too rare that important British jazz albums are re-released with the care and attention given to this set.

Reviews

02/06/2003 Jazz the magazine

“Like a modern day Duke, Travis takes delight in compositions which create subtlely-constructed pictures of moods”

02/06/2003 Jazz UK

Travis’ striking compositions make the music both distinctive and accessible”

02/06/2003 The Birmingham Post

“A clutch of great original tunes”

02/06/2003 Jazz on CD magazine

“ Travis isn’t a revolutionary in the Charlie Parker sense but, in a jazz age aping 1959, he’s pretty damn amazing for all that. His View takes an expressionistic form of jazz – often evocative of place or feeling – adds rock and other influences , but nonetheless remains jazz.............A triumph of popular appeal and art”