Weather Or NotGerry Gibbs & Thrasher PeopleAlbumGenre: JazzDescription: EDITORIAL REVIEWS It is unique and kind of madcap the sign of a fertile artist plowing through all the ideas swirling around his brain. Instead of creating one musical concept I wanted it to sound like 16 trios so that's why the music was so eclectic. Gerry Gibbs is the artist and his new two-disc set - one disc devoted to the blazing Weather Report the second to his own diverse material - leads listeners through a fun house of styles. Disc One is devoted to Weather Report tribute but it's not nearly the lukewarm cover collection by aspiring fusioneers you might expect. (Because perhaps they might beat Zawinul and company at their own game) Instead Gibbs opts to re-imagine the material from the POV of an acoustic piano-led trio the featured instrument played by luminous new talent Alex Collins with brilliant Austrian-born Hans Glawischnig on bass. The sparks sure do fly on familiar melodies: Palladium Teen Town Birdland naturally and Black Market. There's lots to dig into here and you certainly don't have to be a Weather Report fan to dig it. Disc Two features Gibbs cranking up the creative juices on a set of originals traversing from flamenco to pulse-quickening funk calypso gospel Latin jazz R&B and plenty of all-out swing. While Gibbs has tackled myriad projects in the past from 2006's Thrasher Big Band project Live at Luna's to 2010's The Electric Thrasher Orchestra Plays The Music of Miles Davis ('67-'75) and 2013's Grammy-nominated Thrasher Dream Trio his 11th release as a bandleader is his most audacious and fully-realized project to date an early crowning achievement from a restless spirit and a triumphant indefatigable artist
