Changing Rhythm by Scott Lindenmuth Group

He's a post-Metheny fusion player with nice phrasing, a strong melodic sense and a talent for composition. His tunes run the gamut from melancholy ballads to burning triplets, from jazzy offerings to slightly New Age fare. Consequently, he doesn't settle on any one particular sound on this album, switching from a warm fat-bodied jazz guitar to steel-string acoustic to solidbody with all the gadgets.

"The Flame" is very Metheny-esque, circa American Garage, while "Typical Fusion" utilizes some familiar Pat Martino intervals, circa Joyous Lake. "Continuous Call" is a straight-ahead jazzy ballad done up in the melodic tradition of Metheny, Van Manakas or Emily Remler while "Another Side, Another Time," with its gentle acoustic strumming, has a distinctive New Age soundtrack quality.

This is a strong album, Lindenmuth's second with his four-piece band for Dark Stream Records. His talents as a composer and player should place him right alongside such contemporaries as Mike Stern, Scott Henderson and Frank Gambale. Of course, Seattle is not New York or L.A., but if Lindenmuth keeps putting out product of such high quality, the word should get around. Maybe Seattle's big secret will soon break out to wider realms."

-Bill Milkowski/Guitar World

"It's not a good time to be a fusion band. The glut of heartless New Age muzak encourages a lot of people to dismiss anything with a name like soft or experimental jazz. I hope guitarist Scott Lindenmuth's second album doesn't suffer that dismissal because he leads a quartet of serious players who produce innovative rhythm and melody, not just New Age sounds to drool to. One track, "The Alamo," acts like a commentary on what Lindenmuth thinks jazz should be about. It starts off with a dialogue between a few bars of repetitive, bell-like New Age stuff and a tough, walking beat. A good hook - not just unobtrusive background noise - is what Lindenmuth is about. Lindenmuth, whose ads for guitar instruction you've seen for years, carries on the electric and acoustic experiments that people like Pat Metheny, Eric Gale and Robben Ford started in the late '70s. Lindenmuth's first album, Another Side, Another Time, appealed to listeners who wondered what happened to the new jazz of the late '70s. What happened was, it stayed alive and well in the hands of some uncompromising practitioners like Lindenmuth."

-The Rocket

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