2/4
Precious Gems is a record assembled from bonus material from 2003’s uncut gems sessions. The first nine tracks are by all three guitarists, Muriel Anderson, Phil Keaggy and Stanley Jordan. Anderson is a fingerstyle and harp guitarists and Jordan is a jazz guitarist. They’re all three nationally recognized as top talent. Two of the first nine tracks were initially released on uncut gems; the two tracks that featured Jordan as a guest. The rest of the tracks on Precious Gems are the uncut gems tracks but listed here as “bonus.” Only one track from uncut gems is not included in Previous Gems, “The Fawn.” Clear enough?
The new tracks on Previous Gems are about 25 minutes in length. The opener, “Sunrise,” is a warm, quiet piece that’s a bit sleepy until the bridge and everyone wakes up. It feels like a warmup or practice jam. The second track “Chippewah,” goes nowhere, slowly. “Window To The Truth,” is an interesting interpretation of “Do You Know What I know?” “The Gathering,” actually has presence and purpose; a faster track that mostly succeeds. “Snowfall” meanders around in space for a while then ends without notice. “Southern Journey,” has some nice parts. It’s a very loose track with some mistakes and odd directions. Not a song so much as an exploration.
Unfortunately, Precious Gems adds little to the world that didn’t already exist on uncut gems and manages to short shrift uncut gems’ superior material by placing it towards the rear of the album. Anderson and Keaggy made the right call on these sessions originally. Uncut gems should have been rereleased as a deluxe edition with the additional tracks as bonus material. I suspect that Keaggy couldn’t pass up being able to list Jordan as a co-creator of the album so we end up with a disappointing representation of what were pretty good sessions.