“Busstra is quite capable of expressing himself with originality within this genre with powerful compositions that are virile and flavorful,…”
Fusion has, not always without justification, received a lot of criticism, or so we read in the CD’s insert. Guitarist Marnix Busstra wants to create fusion in the same fashion as Weather Report and Steps Ahead have done in their best moments.
These are brave ideals to strive to by a young group that is moving in circles already densely populated, but fair is fair – Busstra largely achieves his goals. Busstra’s fusion remains fusion, and that is the only fundamental criticism that is possible; then again, this CD is not intended for the brass purists that fusion categorically refuse to accept. Busstra is quite capable of expressing himself with originality within this genre with powerful compositions that are virile and flavorful, where he conducts the group with song-like and catchy guitar playing and where Peter Lieberom’s saxophone provides a controlled, Coltrane-esk tension.
The strength of this quartet is that the jazz feeling is in no way watered down or lessened by the use of rock music. Rather, pop, rock and even world-music is used here to inspire and transfer the jazz into a high energy elixir.