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Marbin’s first three studio albums reveled a diverse band that mixed art rock, jazz fusion, blues rock and middle eastern music into interesting CDs that balanced melodic sensitivity with high energy jazzy rock. There was always a feeling that guitarist DanI Rabin wouldn’t mind pushing aside some of the more sensitive material and show the world what he was really capable of on the guitar, and on the new live CD, “Third Set”, that is what we get. Gone are most of the melodic ballads, while the amount of high octane rock fusion numbers increase, the end result; a new guitar hero is born. It always seemed like Dani Rabin had this sort of performance inside him, and on “Third Set” his inner guitar-hero is finally set free. This is jazz rock guitar playing on the rock side of things with a very heavy distorted and saturated sound somewhere in-between Jeff Beck, Steve Vai, Oz Noy and Jimi Hendrix. Sometimes when Dani unleashes a steady stream of notes on the high end of the neck, he almost recalls the late Pete Cosey on Miles’ “Agharta” album. Dani’s strong melodic sense can also recall Mike Stern, another famous Miles sideman.
Although this live CD leans more towards Rabin and the rockier side of things, saxophonist and fellow band co-leader, Danny Markovitch, definitely adds some fire of his own. Danny’s playing on here adjusts to the heavy feel by playing a lot of guitar-like fast repeating riffs, rather than the flowing lines of a jazz approach. His choice of high end saxophone sounds, such as the soprano sax, may seem at odds with the heavy guitar, but he makes it work. Once again the album “Agharta” comes to mind on which saxophonist Sonny Fortune would play rock like riffs on the soprano sax over Miles’ heavy psychedelic band. Not everything on “Third Set” is heavy, on the song “Culture”, Markovitch opens with an unaccompanied solo that shows his interest in middle-eastern music. Also, the tracks “Crystal Bells” and “Northern Odyssey” act as instrumental power ballads among the more high octane numbers.
For those who were hoping that Marbin might head in a more energetic and guitar based direction, your dreams have come true. As far as heavy guitar oriented fusion goes, this is one of the best CDs so far for 2014. DanI Rabin’s solos are fast, extravagant and laser accurate, but more importantly, they are fun to listen to, lots of life affirming good vibes going on here.
