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Benny Reitveld - Mystery of Faith REVIEWED BY KARI KOVAILAINEN A DIEHARD SANTANA A FAN FROM SWEDEN FIRST APPEARED ON THE SANTANA POLYCAFE. Have been listening to Benny�s new cd for a week and half now,and everytime I listen to it I hear new things,new sounds... I dunno,but this is an amalgamation of all that is good music, atleast to me. Rope Dancers is the perfect one to open with,listen to Jason Lewis and Alex Murzyun,Rita Thies and Stef Burns, not to mention Benny... The Dreams Of Maya is somewhat cooler,Rita Thies on alto flute,Alex Murzyn on soprano sax,and the foundation is ...Benny... A Night At The Astoria...my all time favorite on drums, Rodney Holmes..."keep in time and in tune"...yeah,he knows how to,he really knows,Rodney is the best ever,and you know it! Sea Of Stories...I guess you have heard it ,Posada u know,but everytime I hear this song it is like Christmas, I first heard it thanks to a friend in Italy,Carlo...Yeah,Carlo without an "s",he was kind enuff to send me a tape... Desert Skies...a bass solo,and I guess you had a wood neck on your bass when you recorded this beautiful song Benny,not a graphite one,the flageolettes sound as flageolettes,nothing metallic �bout the sound,I was wrong... Earths Revenge(Deep Ecology) is one heck of a song, this is not just deep ecology,it is is a song that makes us dance,and this is the truth man... Remember...Alex Murzyn on tenor sax,Benny on bass,programming and vocals...some deep voice ,man.It is a tune different from the rest of the tunes on the cd,it is a tune that keeps us in time and in tune,if you know what I mean... Kahi Lai,a bass solo,from Hawaii to all of us who wishes we were born on Hawaii...Somehow when I hear this solo I can�t stop thinking of "In A Silent Way". Mr Tambourine Man is another one,Barbara Higbie sings like no one I have ever heard before, so much soul ,and be sure to listen closely to Benny�s bass, also to his acoustic guitar, deaah deaah,talk about �"fat " bass... Anybody There? is a funk groove sort of tune,no way to describe it, Rodney on drums,Alex Murzyn on tenor and flutes...I dunno,the kind of groove I have always been into,but no way describing the music... A Journey Home,the last track...well,I am the jazz freak on this Cafe,so I guess I could give you atleast some hint.ECM ,a record label... back in the 70s released a lot of Keith Jarret lp�s,and a lot of albums with Norwegian musicians,so this is what I hear right now, a homage to Keith, to Garbarek,to all the others who made the 70s cook...it was a great decade,atleast musically... KARI Johnny Gib's REVIEW OF BEEN RIETVELD MYSTERY OF FAITH Well it was with eager expectations that I awaited Benny Reitveld�s solo album �Mystery of Faith� which very long delays in the postal service couldn�t dampen. Thanks a lot to my brother Greg �Goyo� Lutz for out of the kindness of his heart offering to help me obtain this promising album. After all Benny had been the bass player on some great Santana albums like the under appreciated �Spirits Dancing In The Flesh�, the powerful �Milagro� and you might have heard of their last minor hit �Supernatural�!!! On the day I received it together with 8 other CDs in the mail, Benny�s was first in line and I was full of suspense. The opening track �Rope Dancers� mix of powerful rock and world music nearly blew me off the chair. The music was so fresh, exotic, atmospheric, mysterious and full of exotic Eastern sounding horns courtesy of Rita Thies and Alex Murzon. It conjured images of Thailand/South America or the soundtrack for some new Sci-Fi cinema epic. Now this is the sort of music that I wanted to review and promote when I got the idea for the album review section!! The second track is a jazzier, cooler and bluesier grove �Dreams of Maya� with hints of Miles in it. Rita�s flute, Alex sax and an excellent bass solo really shine on this track. Dancing at the Astoria is simply wonderful, I can�t seem to stop my feet as I am listening and trying to write the review. Its an impressive flowing, reggae tinged bass and drum workout with the incredible Mr. Rodney Holmes on drums, Alex Murzon�s excellent flute provides the icing on an already delicious cake. I wonder if this track could be slipped to some enterprising DJ or to Wyclef who would work on it just a bit and turn it into a dancefloor hit!!!. I can now hear what some fans have been saying for some time the relationship between Benny and Rodney is almost telepathic. Its as if they were born to play together, like many other fans we hope that there is some way for Rodney to play on Carlos next album. Benny wrote and arranged the beautiful �Sea of Stories/Posada� especially for Carlos Santana, it turns out to be one of the most atmospheric, touching instrumentals (with an almost cinematic feel to it) that this guitarist has played in a number of years. It opens with some castanets, tambourine and Carlos on some �Mexican� sounding acoustic guitar. After milking the theme on his acoustic guitar, he proceeds to outdo himself on electric guitar. This is probably the second best Carlos Santana guest appearance on an album, only surpassed by �The Healer� with John Lee Hooker. The moods continue to swing and sway a lovely short bass solo track �Desert Skies� and a powerful jazz/metal tribute to Ecology �The Earth�s Revenge� makes half the heavy metal bands in North America redundant. The dual attack of Alex Murzon�s Sax and Robin Pfefer guitar just simply tear right into the song. The big unexpected surprise is a brilliant accordion solo full of warmth and feeling by the one and only Tom Coster in the middle of the song. Don�t ask me what he is doing there but take my word it works brilliantly, I never knew that an accordion could sound so good!!! Benny goes mad and takes responsiblity for all the sounds on the cool, jazzy and mysterious strains of Remember (even some spoke passages), with only Alex�s sax to understate the main theme. This is followed by a very atmospheric and great arrangement of Dylan�s Tambourine Man which brings along yet another change of mood. The crystal clear vocals of Barbara Highbie delightfully handle the vocal duties bringing out the pain in this interesting classic. I think it would sound nice on the radio too!!! The dynamic trio of Benny, Rodney and Alex go into the fusion/dance music collage of �Anybody There� (It features some great keyboard work from Benny as well). It has the feel of classic jazz-fusion from its heyday but with a more up-to-date feel. Well to sum up I had only heard one of Benny�s previous compositions �Red Prophet� featured on Santana�s �Milagro� album and was quite impressed with his talent. Benny has certainly blossomed out since 92, this album has avoided the dreaded �talented sideman boring solo album syndrome' and just seems to get better with every listen. I feel quite bad that this talented album has not got the expsure it deserves and is being reviewed by top jazz or rock magazines.You can listen to tracks or buy it from his web site http://www.bennyworld.com I bet you won�t feel disappointed.Do what you can to promote it.I hope that Benny continues to evolve and shine as brightly as he has done on this album-within the Santana band and on his own solo career for many years to come. We certainly hope he has some of his excellent tunes saved up for the next Santana album!!! What more can I say!!! |
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