Steve Khan - Backlog

In jazz guitar history, few have reinvented themselves as definitively as Steve Khan. A guitarists' guitarist, Khan's chops and writing were inimitable when emerging on New York's mid-to-late '70sdowntown scene, but it was in 1981 with the first of three albums featuring a quartet monikered from its title, Eyewitness (all three reissued on BGO's important 2016 two CD set) , where a true paradigm shift occurred.Featuring a more mature Khan shifting from guitar gymnastics to an emphatically collaborative approach, the guitarist placed the music - and collective group sound - first and foremost. Not that Khan had abandoned his technical acumen; if anything, in this highly simpatico quartet where he'd opted for the warmer, largely clean-toned Gibson 335 that has since become a signature, Khan also developed a far more sophisticated and formidable harmonic sensibility, rich with a dancing blend of open voicings, intervallic leaps and quirky, idiosyncratic yet vividly lyrical phrases. It was germination of a still-ongoing period of musical growth. His fifth studio album since returning to solo recordings after nearly 10 years away, Backlog continues Khan's innovative reimagining of material rarely (if ever) afforded a Latin treatment with, for the first time, electric guitar front and center. Applying the complex polyrhythms and multiplicity of rhythmic stylings found in Latin/Afro-Cuban music to original material, obscurer jazz selections, and evergreen jazz and Great American Songbook standards, Backlog forms a trilogy of sorts with the similarly superb Parting Shot (2011) and Subtext (2014). Further building upon concepts introduced more definitively The Green Field (2005) and Borrowed Time (2007), Backlog's music - impeccably selected and arranged - also features some of Khan's best playing to date.Steve Khan (guitar)Rub�n Rodr�guez (baby bass & electric bass)Mark Walker (drums)Marc Qui�ones (timbal, bongo, & percussion)Bobby Allende (conga, bongo)Guest artists:Randy Brecker (trumpet � #1)Bob Mintzer (tenor sax � #7)Mike Mainieri (vibes � #5)Rob Mounsey (keyboards � #2,6,7,9; orchestrations � #3,6,10; orchestral arrangements � #4,8)Tatiana Parra (voice � #10)