Orhan Demir Trio

Orhan Demir Trio: Windmill Orhan Demir's third album jumps outh with a hurricane force on
"Category Three." The tempo is lightning fast and Demir spirals out line after line of invention. It's an exciting beginning to a great album. Demir has a new rhythm section on this LP but it sounds as if they've been playing for a while. Special mention has to be made of bassist Lazaroff. The electric bass is not an instrument I'm fond of hearing in a jazz context. But Lazaroff pulls off no mean feat by making it sound like a natural as a jazz instrument. His tone is subtle, not overbearing and he glides effortlessly along the strings shading the notes as an acoutic player would. The closet comparison to Demir's style might be pre-Mahavishnu McLaughlin. And that's a good place to be. It seems that's where jazz guitar development started to go wrong. Demir has the technique and the ideas and he doesn't need to crank up the volume or resort to some effects boxes to bring it across. His compositions are varied. In addition to two figerbusters ("Category Three" and "Liberty Square") there's a strange blues line ("Windmill"), "Duplex Planet," an uptempo line that evolves into a slow, moody chordal exploration, and "Orient Express," a free piece. If anyone is interested in the guitar, he/she should check out Demir. He's a great player of great imagination, technique and wit.

A review from Option magazine.

Orhan Demir Trio: Windmill  Although Demir is in most senses of the word a jazz guitarist, his music owes much to middle eastern music (he's originally from Turkey) and doesn't really swing a lot. His tone is somewhere between, say, Joe Pass and Larry Coryell, but his lightning runs are closer to Coryell's and John McLaughlin's end of the spectrum. Most of this was in evidence on his last LP Northwest, and Windmill is similar. Demir again has intelligent listening collaborators, this time electric bassist Rick Lazaroff and drummer Jack Vorvis. Again the tunes are well-written, and again there's a free number that goes nowhere. But perhaps due to the electric bass and what sounds like a solid body guitar, Windmill packs a more viceral punch. It's not fusion; there's too much rhythmic interplay. It's more like hearing McLaughlin with Steve Swallow on bass and Billy Higgins on drums. At its best (e.g. "Category Three"), it's that good. What seems to help is a clear compositional direction. The Aformentioned free number lacks that, and the ballad needs more focus. The other four cuts fare better. I enjoyed the more overt jazz groove of Northwest more, but fans of more electric improvising will find a lot to like about Windmill, and guitar buffs will probably want to check out both. --Bart Grooms