5thousand Words

"Using the minimalistic and expansive tastes of new age, blended with jazz harmonies, the memorable hooks of pop and colored with accessible R&B grooves, Bach has designed a tapestry of full-bodied easy listening music for a wide variety of contexts. Taking influences from Pat Metheny to Paul Winter, the Yellow Jackets to Sting to David Benoit, "Five Thousand Words" is a new standard in smooth jazz that leaves behind the elevator-music cliche and ventures into the expressive and evocative.
Reviewer: Tamara Turner
CD Baby
CD Baby 5thousand Words (Integrity Music) "


SONGS

Forget Me Not
Chill
Between The World
Night Moves
Remembering Then
Say it Isn't So
Interlude (Seventh Sun)
Seventh Sun
Five Thousand Words
Heaven's Gate (revisited)
Pulsation
Four Corners
A' La Mode
As Night Falls

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it". These wise words surely must have been David Bach's mantra while writing and recording this, his second CD as a bandleader. Using the same core group of musicians from his previous release, Window on the West (augmented by a few key players), David has delivered an emotionally charged collection which blurs the lines between new age and jazz.
    Compositionally, songs like "Passion Play" and "Between the World" are strong example of effective theme development. The main melodic figure of "Passion Play" modulates near the 2-minute mark and provides just enough tension to command attention, even at low volume levels. "Between the World" teeters between minor and major tonalities without sounding fragmented or too "fusion-y". In the song's outro, David's synth solo brings to mind Keith Emersons's use of portamento on his "Fanfare For The Common Man" solo. David's decision to fade out during the solo after a few measures was a show of good taste and ego restraint.
    Elsewhere, David displays his knack for tasteful arrangements in several ways: His elegant usage of different keyboard flavors, namely alternating grand piano and Fender Rhodes within a song, offers subtle organic contrasts that add spice while suggesting a breadth of fresh influence; and by maintaining a large palette of instrumental colors, he is able to underscore a melodic line, such as the main line in "Seventh Sun" which uses sax to double the piano's dominant melody. Rounding out the performances on the disk, fretless guru Jimmy Charlsen takes an understated solo on "Between the World" and contributes to the CD's overall cosmopolitan aura. Drummer Frank Young makes a guest appearance on "Seventh Sun" and his approach is a nice contrast from the equally fine playing of JuJu House, who handled the bulk of the drumming. Longtime Bach affiliates Andy Shriver and Stan Whitaker turned in nice, textural guitar parts. And we certainly can't forget about good 'ole Frank Marchand whose world-class knob-twiddling makes 5thousand Words feel right at home in the CD changer next to anything Windham Hill or GRP for that matter, have ever released. Congrats to David and cohorts on an exemplary glimpse into yet another of their many windows...
- Bob Frapples
Music Monthly Magazine




Out of Baltimore comes keyboardist David Bach with his second solo CD, 5thousand Words. Bach has found great success already being voted "Best Instrumental Band" from Music Monthly Magazine readers poll three years in a row (1999-2001). He was a BET "Jazz Discovery Showcase" winner in 1999 and was nominated in ’99 for a Wammie for Best Instrumentalist and Best CD (Washington Area Music Award) and received a gold record (he has two) for co-writing with singer Crystal Waters.. He was done a ton of studio work for musicians like Janet Jackson to Everything But The Girl. Bach has also composed and scored music for Fox TV, The Discovery Channel, PBS and others. If you like Keiko Matsui and/or Sam Cardon you’ll like David Bach. His music has a lot of drama to it with a influence from classical, New Age and Jazz. For you more Smooth Jazz fans there is a track for you, too "Chill," which happens to be one of my favorite on the CD because it has that Pop/Jazz sound with a nice hook featuring the saxophone. The rest is more on the story telling front. Painting pictures for your mind in a comforting, naturist sort of way. Take "Between The World." A track like this would be perfect for a nature channel. That is probably why he is successful creating music for the Discover Channel. "Remember Then" has a nice solo piano theme that reminds me of David Benoit’s playing ability. "Seventh Sun" is a good up tempo drama flavored piece that makes me think of Matsui instantly. Bach uses all of his musical influences for style and David Wells adds the sax licks to perfection on this story. Bach’s playing his ass off with jazz licks galore. Nicely done. If you are into the classical stage the title track, which is short gives you that nugget. "Four Corner" is another Matsui type of song. Extremely dramatic. Bach’s music is very good, just most of it would be hard to classify as jazz, but who cares. From a musicians stand point it is interesting tunes.
Review by Jeff Charney / Contemporary Jazz.com