MORDY FERBER
Mr. X
Half Note Records
4205

I was wondering what happened to Mordy Ferber. No! I really was! Ferber, a native of Israel, recorded a splashy little CD for the Enja label (All The Way to Sendai) in 1990 with Miroslav Vitous, Bob Mintzer, Tiger Okoshi, Nana Vasconcelos, and Brad Hatfield, among others. I’d heard nothing from him since then – a shame since both his composing and guitar playing (the latter somewhat influenced by the likes of John Abercrombie, Mike Stern, and Pat Metheny) seemed pretty darned interesting in a too-weird for-fusion / but-not-quite-jazz sort of way.

Mr. X is quite a bit jazzier than All The Way to Sendai, though the near-volcanic energy of the title track, "Formerly With No One" and "21st Century" approaches some of John Abercrombie’s early recordings for ECM. Two of the compositions from Ferber’s earlier recording, "Formerly With No One" and "A Minor Tune," also appear on Mr. X. "A Minor Tune" is a bossa-inflected ballad which benefits largely from Hatfield’s far lighter touch on the newer version. "Formerly With No One" is much more urgent and quite a bit darker than the version Ferber recorded a decade ago. DeJohnette and Gomez are nothing short of phenomenal here. Gomez opens with an amazing, guitar-like solo, which DeJohnette joins to establish a roiling, churning backdrop to the theme, and Ferber’s nicely paced, though somewhat brief, solo. Liebman gets off in a major way on this track, as well.

This brings me to my problem with Mr. X. There are times where Ferber seems a bit too willing to let his sidemen run away with the session. Of course, if I was recording with the likes of Gomez, DeJohnette, Liebman, and Garzone, I would be hugely flattered to have them go nuts when playing one of my compositions. It is a mistake, however, for the leader to be too generous in these circumstances. Mr. X suffers as a result: aside from the title cut, Ferber’s guitar seems to disappear too readily amidst the quite wonderful playing by his all-star cast. The grouping of four consecutive moody, gentle, ballad-like pieces ""A Minor Tune," "Silence," "Fred Astaire in Chicago," and "Ziporah" also had my attention wandering a bit, even though Ferber’s version of "Silence" is both skillful and soulful, and "Astaire" has some nice bluesy energy to it. Once you get past the Star Trek-like keyboard fanfare nonsense opening "21st Century," there’s an utterly explosive and quite extended dialogue between Garzone and DeJohnette. After some more big keyboard sounds, DeJohnette sets up one of those super-trashy, ultra- funky grooves he's so famous for, over which Ferber takes his most extreme and twisted solo of the entire CD. Pretty cool stuff, but perhaps too little and too late. Hopefully, Ferber won’t wait a decade before recording for the US market once again.

Dave Wayne

Track Listing: 1. Mr. X; 2. Formerly With No One; 3. A Minor Tune; 4. Silence; 5. Fred Astaire in Chicago; 6. Zipora (To My Mother); 7. 21st Century

Personnel: Ferber, electric & acoustic guitars, guitar synthesizer; Jack DeJohnette, drums; Eddie Gomez, bass; George Garzone, tenor sax; Dave Liebman, soprano sax; Brad Hatfield, keyboards; Nana Vasconcelos, percussion, voice