Duke Ellington, Money Jungle, with Max Roach and Charles Mingus; (Blue Note). When Miles Davis heard this in a "Downbeat" blindfold test, he reacted violently, thinking the mixing of modernists Roach and Mingus with Duke was a record company trick designed to sell product. "Duke can't play with them, and they can't play with him" was Miles' derisive comment.
Well, this is pretty incredible. Duke is not a bebop player in the sense of Bud Powell, of course, taking all those fast, horn-like right hand solos. But not too many knew how to get such a variety of interesting sounds out of the piano. In fact, it's interesting to compare grooves like Caravan, for instance, to those found on Tonic, MMW's new all-acoustic trio record. Very funky stuff.
P'taah, Compressed Light (Ubiquity). Wow, just when you thought you knew something about music, a thing like this drops and you're scuttling for your old records wondering "how'd he do that!"
The beats are monstrous, the drums are warm and funk funk funky on the abstract tip. The cutting and recycling is in full effect... snips and bits from 70's funk (Herbie's Hang Up Your Hangups), Miles Davis' Aura era stuff, Manola Bandera style worldess vocals, and I even think the track Crossing... (Evacuation of Form) uses an old sax master's recording of that Barbara Streisand dial-turner "People." Sick.
The best thing about it, though, is that he's got a real artistic vision. It all hangs together, and some of the tracks, like Uriel Bridge, are almost symphonic in scope... A thunderous, industrial-strength groove with Pharoah Sanders' type screechy-soloing morphs itself into a wicked Santana groove that'll make you cry... and then into a Pat Metheny Brazillian mode comedown... Wow. I put this right up there with last year's Programmed from Innerzone Orchestra. A best of 2000 contender?
Maysa... All My Life. (N'Coded). A Bluey Manuick-Maysa collaboration. Guess what? It sounds a lot like Incognito, although some of the tracks have that "Stronger Than Pride" era vibe going for them. But, unlike Incognito, the spotlight here is 100% Maysa, who, to my way of thinking, is all that and 3 bags of chips. She brings the real jazz bizness as a vocalist, and while she won't get the play of Erykah, Lauren, (or Macy), and the tracks are a little too smooth-jazz for my taste, man, what a voice she's got. And, since I don't want to jinx my chances of getting to work with her next month, (fingers-crossed shameless name drop) let me just say if you love Incognito, and you love Maysa, you'll love this.
Pick of the Month; Cornbread, Lee Morgan. OK, everyone knows and loves "The Sidewinder." Well, this is right up there, in fact, in some ways, it might even surpass the classic. First off, it's got Hank Mobley on tenor and an extra horn player, (Jackie McLean on alto) so you gotta love the sextet sound. It's got funky Billy Higgins on drums laying down more illness, and best of all, perhaps, it's got Herbie Hancock, and he is ROCKING on this one. He comps hot grooves on the title track, busts an incredible "out" solo on Our Man Higgins and some funky "buy the CD and quit rewindin' this" licks on Most Like Lee. How can one guy be blessed with so much talent... and what has he done for us lately, funkwise?
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Jun 11 2000 - 23:02:58 MET DST