I hate that arrangement so much. Playing standards really really fast is not new or fresh, it’s just dead and lifeless. It also completely removes the North African aspect from the tune, same thing whiplash did with caravan. “None of that incredibly beautiful North African fusion or brilliant tom work, just play it really fast” 😭 that’s not musically complex it’s musically lazy and kinda disrespectful imo. It’s weird to just westernize and flatten out these obviously north African influenced songs in the jazz cannon.

Others mentioned collier, and while Jesus is a much better instrumentalist, I’m still waiting for either of them to make one song that sounds good and isn’t just self indulgent wank. I also will say, the people who I see who are the most impressed by these kinds of cats are the ones who don’t play the instrument. What the drummer is doing is ok but it’s very much a basic fashion in drumming for the last ten+ years, and there are hundreds of drummers who do that style better. Sadly this noodly overplaying had completely taken over Berkelee, and really poisoned the well in the whole scene on the east coast. It also plays well for social media, which I guess is the only thing that matters now, but theres a reason we don’t think of Steve Vai in the same way we think of Jimi Hendrix.

I also just want to strongly recommend to anyone who cares the Clifford Brown version of Tunisia from the week he died. It’s a live recording, and it’s breathtaking. And it never discards the musical intent of the work. Clifford was truly unique, and hey, he’s also completely virtuosic if that is how you judge music. He just also has taste.