Great Sacrifice

"This live cd captures his quartet plus guest in perfect balance — electric jazz that runs the voodoo down. Each member of the core quartet has a strong sound — Bernie Senensky's McCoy-ish powerful piano playing, Don Pate's delightful elastic support on contrabass, Bob Moses' massive, earth shaking, uplifting propulsion on drums. Even special guest Paul Shaffer's synth playing adds just the right amount of (Sun Ra-like) spacey seasoning to this delectable stew. This band sounds completely possessed — burning spirits, pushing each other & us up to the heavens! There is a relaxed vibe at the beginning of most of these tunes, but it soon erupts with every incredible solo! Munoz' solos are a marvel of high speed lines beyond belief, but with a grittier and more spiritual tone than most fusion guitarists would ever use. This music is filled with torrential energy! There are those pieces where his solos just keep going higher & higher... and the set ends with Tisziji (and everyone at the gig) howling to unleash the pent-up exploding spirits inside each of us and set them free! This entire set & release flows like a force of nature, peaceful at first before a distant storm builds until the guitar's lightning-sheets of sound overwhelm us once again. And then it's back to that burnin' acoustic piano jazz trio that also dazzles us with it's swinging storm force. This release sounds to me like the gig of the year (century?)!" —Bruce Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery