Bruce Eisenbeil: Jazz Guitarist

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Review of MURAL by Larry Nai for Cadence Magazine
06.2000

Mural

Like Kara Rusch's cover painting for MURAL, which brings to mind Jackson Pollock working over an Excel spreadsheet, there is ostensibly random activity in guitarist Bruce Eisenbeil's music, yet there's also a strongly-rooted sense of order. Producer Bob Rusch and David Wild note the unpredictability of MURAL in their liners, with that somewhat bewildering trait driving much of its fascination. Eisenbeil's tone and ideas continue to remind me of the apparently lost guitarist Sarnie Garrett, whose jagged, oddly serene lines lent so much atmosphere to Kalaparusha's 1972 "Forces and Feelings". While MURAL sounds nothing like that classic Delmark opus, MURAL is similiar in giving its listener an intriguingly inexplicable landscape in which to wander. The opening "Wildflowers", to cite just one track, goes immediately to places I haven't been to since the Revolutionary Ensemble was together, and even they didn't go there often.

That said, there's much here on which the ear can stretch out quite comfortably; "Wildflowers" itself resolves into an almost raga-like chordal strum familiar from the days of Quicksilver Messenger Service. "Christ V. Paradise" is a hot performance by any standard, Eisenbeil shooting off staccato notes and chords, while Brunka's fat, rubery tone and Sawyer's time-slicing drumwork create perfect texture. "Caesar" has a deliciously abstract opening; Eisenbeil's short, repeated chord pattern at the 10:00 minute mark is a familiar road sign that draws the listener further in to the piece's more intuitive moments. "Woman With A Handful Of Rain" has some impressively lyrical guitar in its theme; like parts of the leaders first CIMP disc, Nine Wings, the deep soul of Jimi Hendrix's ballad playing also seems to have been an influence. MURAL is, yes, a "guitar record," but it's, above all, cohesive trio music. Sonny Sharrock fans who miss the big guy's pre-Laswell work should check Eisenbeil out post-haste, and I hope to hear more from Sawyer and Brunka, who play this music with sensitivity and big, inventive ears.