CD Review: Neal Schon - The Calling
Frontiers Records
All Access Review: B+
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| Neal Schon - The Calling 2012 |
There actually was
a Journey before Steve Perry arrived. What people forget is, originally, the
band showed little interest in making the kind of bite-sized, pop-rock ambrosia
found on albums like Escape and Frontiers. Writing aching, overwrought romantic
ballads such as “Open Arms” and never-say-die guitar anthems like “Don’t Stop
Believin’” that all tended to breathe their last after only a few minutes of
life wasn’t what Neal Schon had in mind.
Coming from Santana, he imagined a collective of virtuoso
musicians indulging in sprawling rock instrumentals that paid no attention to
the clock. And while that went over exceedingly well in live settings, Journey’s
early records – Journey, Look into the Future and Next – all floundered commercially.
Journey’s record label gnashed its teeth, of course, and decided a change in
direction was needed. The rest is history.
In his heart of hearts, though, Schon has always relished
the opportunity to stretch out musically, and he goes further than he’s ever
been before on The Calling, his jazz-tinged,
progressive-rock seventh solo album. Collaborating with former Journey drummer Steve
Smith, Schon mingles moods and textures like a chemist, layering guitar and
bass parts – comprised of some of the heaviest riffing and wildest soloing he’s
ever unleashed, as evidenced by the powerful grooves of the metallic title
track – over Smith’s complex, highly technical rhythms. There are periods of
combustible fury and contemplation in the string-laden “Back Smash,” a sweeping
epic that features silvery waves of synthesizer and crashing guitar chords, and
“Carnival Jazz” sends a barrage of ground-to-air guitar missiles into the sky
over Smith’s frenetic stick work, before devolving into a jazzy rain of
acoustic piano.
More exotic, but no less menacing or dramatic, the
mushrooming “Fifty-Six” finds the supersonic Schon flying at unsafe speeds up
and down the fret, while in the 1:15 “Irish Field,” Schon goes it alone,
weaving together strands of expressive six-string fingering into a fragile, but
absolutely beautiful, sound sculpture. A nod to Hendrix, “Blue Rainbow Sky” is
Schon’s “Castles Made of Sand” or “Little Wing,” albeit a more expansive
version of both. And then there’s “Six-String Waltz,” swinging gently to and
fro to hypnotic, if somewhat predictable, effect, while the bluesy “True
Emotion” is surrounded by a dark, starry atmosphere that makes one want to lie
on the hood of a Trans-Am and stare into the night.
Proving, once and for all, that Schon isn’t ready to lay
down his axe, The Calling combines
Schon’s overdubbing wizardry with his need for organic musicianship, and Smith,
along with keyboardist friends like Jan Hammer and Igor Len, provide a constantly
evolving and shifting backdrop that perfectly contrasts and dances with his
scorching leads. Heed The Calling and
it might just make you think differently of Schon.
-
Peter Lindblad
