Rock section on page: “Jeremy’s new band can play anything…”
Reviews on Energy and Wayfaring Stranger by David Reitman
If anyone gets more out of a flute than Jeremy Steig, I wouldn’t believe it. Jeremy stomps, rips, pulls, slaps, bites, scratches, kisses and caresses his instrument in the impossible effort to extract every possible sound from it. Technically Jeremy has no peers–that is because unlike many horn players who “double” or “triple” on flute, the flute and its variations is the only thing Jeremy plays and he must have a special love for the instrument. It sounds that way…
We are now presented by two new Jeremy Steig albums. Wayfaring Stranger, on Blue Note, is from a fairly recent jazz phase, but the music is really acoustic rock and roll. Jeremy is joined by Eddie Gomez, truly one of the world’s great bass players and Don Alias on drums, who has Bitches Brew among his credits (they are joined on one cut by Sam Brown on guitar).
Not surprisingly, the record is beautiful. While it starts off in free vein, a large proportion of the material is really unamplified rock. Jeremy was being drawn towards the magnetism of the rock beat, except that he is given a little more room to stretch out than on the later record.
The later record, Energy, features Jeremy’s present group, with Jan Hammer on electric piano, Gene Perla on Fender bass, and Don Alias on drums. Jeremy’s new band can play anything, and as a rock band they are one of the tightest in existence. Another strong point is the strength of the compositions, all memorable. In fact, the tightness and compositional strength brings to mind the Fourth Way…
You will really like Energy, but if you get a chance you should hear Jeremy live, because the recording medium is for Jeremy only an implication, a brief glimpse of an endless struggle and celebration to which he is a witness.
With amateurs lan Anderson wowin’ ‘em, is there a place in the minds and hearts of teenage America for a genius like Jeremy Steig? You tell me.