Thomas Morgan double bass
Gerald Cleaver drums
Recently hailed by Down Beat as “one of the visionaries of the current wave”, Craig Taborn has a unique perspective on creative music-making. Just as Avenging Angel subverted expectations of solo improvised piano, so does “Chants” find its own response to the vast tradition of the piano trio. The pieces that Taborn has been writing for the band in the eight years of its existence are set up to generate a new group music by channelling the special skills of drummer Gerald Cleaver and bassist Thomas Morgan. “I knew that if I created a context and then deferred, fully, to Gerald’s and Thomas’s sensibilities it would inherently be stimulating and would also challenge the context. I wanted to invite that challenge: I’d much rather engage with the group, always, than have the format be ‘piano adventures with supporting cast’”. Morgan and Cleaver share the leader’s concern for compositional shape and multi-layered improvisational detail, as the music is pulled between the poles of density and spaciousness, to dramatic and thrilling effect. “Chants” was recorded in New York in June 2012, and produced by Manfred Eicher. Its release is accompanied by international touring with concerts in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and the US.
ECM
When Sly and The Family Stone hit the scene back in the late ‘60s, the world – socially, culturally and politically – was in a state of upheaval. And their music perfectly evangelized the moment. Today, we stand dangerously at the edge of a similar precipice – and that message of celebratory potential and jubilant clarity is sorely needed. With that concept squarely implanted in his mind’s eye, visionary conceptualist, producer, arranger, composer and keyboard wizard Jason Miles has created the extraordinary Sly Reimagined on the Zoho Roots label. With his groundbreaking, genre-defying borderless mothership Global Noize providing the vehicle, Miles takes on eight classic Sly Stone journeys into the wilds of a reality nearly half a century beyond their point of inception.
Reimagined is the ideal description as the music on this CD doesn’t simply pay homage, but also defines the timelessness of the music by translating it to the forefront of musical thinking here in 2013. Global Noize – with its triumvirate of Miles, turntable master DJ Logic and vocalist Falu – is accompanied on this recording by an astonishing array of nearly two dozen musical powerhouses, including Nona Hendryx, Roberta Flack, Jay Rodriguez, Amanda Ruzza and the original Family Stone drummer Greg Errico.
The nine vocalists and seventeen instrumentalists are woven masterfully into the musical context of each piece – no contrivance, no excess, no aural gymnastics, just extraordinary musicianship, impeccable tastefulness and a relentless sense of groove. The musicians weave in and out, emerging at the always appropriate moment and then sinking back into the perfect mix. There is a visceral sense of ensemble playing, as live and cohesive as the 1968 concert performance at the Fillmore East where Jason first experienced Sly and The Family Stone, becoming forever connected to its unique musical expression. But while that group never could have existed without the foundation of James Brown, vocal groups from the Orioles through the Temptations, jubilant jazz of Louis Jordan through Mingus and Sun Ra, and all strains of Gospel and Blues, Sly Reimagined shows the influences of the post-Sly environment of P-Funk, Prince and the many explorers stimulated by Sly and The Family Stone. All cross-bred with the borderless context of the here and now at its richest.
The Big Horn tenor style – this time in the hands of Ron Holloway - is also featured on Fun with a raucous solo that evokes the irresistible sound of Gene Ammons and Arnett Cobb. Surrounding it is a vividly syncopated groove kick, a passionately soulful vocal by Maya Azucena, DJ Logic’s turntable magic, a chanting chorus and lots of undiluted fun.
Global Noize regular Falu is up front on the brilliant Thank You For Talking To Me Africa – with a side trip to India via her Carnatic vocal approach. An ultra-thick body built on a saxophone choir (arrangement and all saxes by Jeff Coffin), sets a tantalizing groove that oozes like a lava flow and just keeps digging deeper and deeper and deeper into the darkest lustre of pure funk. Falu’s exotic, sinuous style is also ideal forDreams, an appropriately ethereal and evocative soundscape built upon a pastiche of electronica that closes out this remarkable album in a most palpably emotional manner.