Motohiko Hamase ‎– Reminiscence (1986)

Style: Ambient
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label: Shi Zen

Tracklist:
1.   Childhood = チャイルドフッド
2.   Plateau = プラトウ
3.   Doll = ドール
4.  Tree = トゥリー
5.   Intermezzo = インターメッツォ
6.   Duplicated Scene = デュプリケイトッド・シーン
7.   Alphaville = アルファヴィル
8.   Reminiscence = レミニッセンス

Credits:
Engineer [Assistant] – Shigetoshi Sugiyama, Takeshi Tanaka
Engineer [Recording] – Tatsuo Nagami
Producer – Taka Nanri
Producer [Associate] – Mako Nanri
Production Manager – Nozomi Tsutsui
Technician [Piano Tuned By] – Koki Nakamura
Written-By – Motohiko Hamase
Photography By [Front Cover] – Takeshi Mizukoshi
Art Direction – Kiyohiko Ito

Kamasi Washington ‎– Heaven And Earth (3xCD) (2018)

Genre: Jazz
Format: 2CD, 3CD, Vinyl
Label: Young Turks Recordings

Tracklist:
Earth
1-1.   Fists Of Fury
1-2.   Can You Hear Him
1-3.   Hub-Tones
1-4.   Connections
1-5.   Tiffakonkae
1-6.   The Invincible Youth
1-7.   Testify
1-8.   One Of One
Heaven
2-1.   The Space Travelers Lullaby
2-2.   Vi Lua Vi Sol
2-3.   Street Fighter Mas
2-4.   Song For The Fallen
2-5.   Journey
2-6.   The Psalmnist
2-7.   Show Us The Eay
2-8.   Will You Sing

The Choice

3-1.   The Secret Of Jinsinson

3-2.   Will You Love Me Tomorrow

3-3.   My Family

3-4.   Agents Of Multiverse

3-5.   Ooh Child

Ten years ago, British saxophone legend Courtney Pine painted a sobering picture of life as a modern British jazz musician in an . For all the study involved in becoming one, most jazz musicians had no hope of making a living, unless they were one of the clean-cut vocalists content to ring-a-ding-ding their way through the great American songbook to the delight of Michael Parkinson: you could fully expect your weekends to be spent not exploring the outer limits of improvisation, but playing in a wedding band to make ends meet. “An incredible sale in this day and age is 3,000 copies,” he lamented. 

Here was evidence of how modern jazz lurks on the very fringes of mainstream public consciousness. You could fill a book with ways jazz has influenced rock and pop – from post-punk’s skronk to the samples of hip-hop and trip-hop – but apart from the aforementioned ring-a-ding-dingers, no serious jazz musician has really crossed over to huge mainstream success since the 1970s, the era of ’s Bitches Brew and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, of the super-smooth George Benson and Grover Washington Jr, and of ’s  wafting around in the background of dinner parties. 

All of which makes Kamasi Washington faintly extraordinary. His last London gig was not at the intimate Servant Jazz Quarters, but the Roundhouse, a venue at which the audience was clearly not comprised of longstanding jazz buffs. He records for Young Turks – home of the xx, FKA twigs and Sampha – and is reviewed in the kind of places jazz artists seldom get a mention. It all seems to have been achieved without pragmatic compromise. The record that catapulted him from self-releasing CDs in amateurish home-made sleeves, 2015’s The Epic, was a three-hour-long concept album. 

Various theories exist as to how Washington has pulled this off, all of which are supported by The Epic’s full-length follow-up, Heaven and Earth (by Washington’s standards, this is a work of economy, clocking in at a mere two-and-a-half hours). One is that the time is simply right: his guest appearances on Kendrick Lamar’s epochal To Pimp a Butterfly didn’t merely elevate his profile, they established him as “the jazz voice of Black Lives Matter”, in a grand tradition of jazz as black protest. 

Heaven and Earth frequently appears to be a furious state-of-America address. You can hear portentous anger in everything from its track titles – Street Fighter Mas, Song for the Fallen – to its astonishing opening cover of the theme from 1972 kung fu movie Fists of Fury, which arrives not merely extended to 10 minutes, but with additional lyrics: “Our time as victims is over / We will no longer ask for justice.” Washington’s sound tends to the maximalist – he is not a man afraid of breaking out the orchestra and choir – but on the album’s closing tracks Show Us the Way and Will You Sing it doesn’t feel dense so much as tumultuous, the former heaving and yawing behind a high-drama choral arrangement, the latter calmer, but with its ostensibly positive message of empowerment and change underscored by noticeable darkness. It sounds more like storm clouds gathering than sunlight breaking through. 

Another theory is that his sound is audibly rooted in the kind of old jazz texts that non-jazz buffs tend to recognise, the kind of thing that gets collected on hipster-friendly compilations released by Soul Jazz and Strut: the spiritual jazz of John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, Sun Ra’s big band Afrofuturism, the political funk of Archie Shepp’s Attica Blues, the synth experiments of Herbie Hancock and Joe Zawinul. They’re all present here, further smoothed with ample references to early 70s soul and funk, not least the ambitious, orchestrated psychedelia of Rotary Connection. But what’s striking about Heaven and Earth is how expansive and ever-changing it is, its musical focus shifting constantly from lavish grandiosity to perspiration-soaked Latin rhythms to concentrated improvisation, from the edge of chaos to the lushly melodic – sometimes within the same track, as on The Invincible Youth. It never lingers in one place long enough for its running time to seem gruelling. Instead, Heaven and Earth feels writhingly alive and passionate, angrily of the moment but inclusive. 

If describing Heaven and Earth as “jazz for people who don’t like jazz” sounds pejorative, it isn’t meant to be. Rather, it’s simply to indicate that on Heaven and Earth, Washington continues to explore a sweet spot between artistry and approachability. Whether his success will lead audiences to further explore music that usually exists on the fringes is an interesting question. What is more certain is the quality and accessibility of his own music.

Alexis Petridis / The Guardian 

Hideo Yamaki, Bill Laswell With Dave Douglas ‎– The Drawing Center (2017)

Style: Jazz, Free Improvisation
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label: Shiosai ZiZO

Tracklist:
1.   The Science Of Imaginary Solutions

Credits:
Bass, Effects – Bill Laswell
Trumpet – Dave Douglas
Drums – Hideo Yamaki
Music By – Bill Laswell, Dave Douglas, Hideo Yamaki
Engineer [Orange Music] – James Dellatacoma
Executive-Producer – Shinobu Ishihara
Recorded By – Fuso Murase, Hiroyuki Sanada
Management [Dave Douglas] – Mark Micklethwaite
Management [Hideo Yamaki] – Sakurako Yamaki
Artwork By, Coordinator – Yoko Yamabe

Hideo Yamaki - Japan’s most renown, respected and in demand drummer. Veteran of countless recording and live projects with Japan’s most celebrated pop / rock artists. As well as many collaborations with Japanese icons such as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Toshinori Kondo, DJ Krush, Akira Sakata and many others. 

Bill Laswell - Legendary, Ikonoklast, bassist / producer, has worked with Hideo Yamaki since the eighties in many diverse and unimaginable configurations. They have been able to establish a bass and drum dialog that explodes with fluid, spontaneous blasts of telepathy, an ever expanding, dynamic matrix. 

Dave Douglas - one of the leading trumpeters of his generation, was recognized as “Trumpet player of the year” by the Down Beat critics poll for the first time in 2000 and continued that billing 13 times in the 15 years since. Has worked with John Zorn’s Masada, Horace Silver, Anthony Braxton, Joe Lovano and many others. A transcendent style and sweeping vision.

Erlend Øye ‎– Unrest (2002)

Style: Downtempo, Synth-pop
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label: Source

Tracklist:
01.   Ghost Train
02.   Sheltered Life
03.   Sudden Rush
04.   Prego Amore
05.   Every Party Has A Winner And A Loser
06.   The Athlete
07.   Sympton Of Disease
08.   The Talk
09.   A While Ago & Recently
10.   Like Gold

Credits:
Guy Davies - Mastering
Dirk Dresselhaus - Composer, Producer
Morgan Geist  - omposer, Guest Artist, Mixing, Primary Artist, Producer
Guillermo Scott Herren - Composer, Mixing, Producer
Pete Hofmann - Engineer
Tatu Metsätähti - Mixing, Producer
Mr. Velcro Fastener - Producer
Erlend Øye - Composer, Concept, Editing, Mixing, Primary Artist, Producer, Sleeve Producer
Tatu Peltonen - Composer, Mixing, Producer
Mario Pierro -Composer
Prefuse 73 - Producer
Jyri Riikonen - Mixing
Schneider TM - Guest Artist, Primary Artist, Producer
Bjørn Torske - Composer, Mixing, Producer

Erlend Øye made his name with Norwegian downbeat folk duo, Kings Of Convenience, who thanks to a couple of unlikely remixes found themselves the toast of Ibiza. Vocal duties with fellow Norwegians Röyksopp further cemented his reputation, and it is this more electronic sound that he’s explored on his debut album. Packing away his guitar, he has embarked on a trip around the world and collaborated with probably the hottest leftfield dance producers of the day.

Whether Erlend himself personally chose who to work with, or it was the work of some canny A+R man, someone deserves to be congratulated on their good taste and choices. For anyone connected with electronic music the ten artists would constitute a dream list of people to work with. From the absurdly talented Scott Herron (aka Prefuse 73) to the man of the moment Morgan Geist, every one of these are talented artists in their own right.

The album has a defiantly ’80s edge to it, with most of the tracks easily fitting into a bouncy electro synth pop mould, with just a hint of Cameo lurking. Holding all the slight variations together is Erlend’s soft melancholy voice, which can infuse even the poppiest track with a deep yearning.

It really is quite beautiful stuff- even without the vocals I’d love this album. All the producers turn in variations of perfect electro pop, from Mr Velcro Fastener‘s booming electro to Prefuse 73’s take on some kind of ’80s electro-funk-rap hybrid. With the addition of the vocals, you end up with that rare thing, a ‘dance’ album that welcomes repeated listening.

Whilst purists, whether they be of the dance or indie/folk/downbeat variety, may turn their nose up at some of this, such snobbery would be a huge mistake. And it’s early days yet, but Unrest should be in contention for one of the albums of the year. Expertly crafted pure pop, but without a hint of cheese surrounding it, it’s a blueprint for what the music of the future should be – one eye on the past but definitely moving forwards.

John Power / musicOHM

Fauna Flash ‎– Fusion (2001)

Style: Future Jazz, Drum n Bass, Latin
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label: Compost Records

Tracklist:
01.   Mother Nature
02.   Percussion
03.   Free
04.   Tel Aviv
05 .   Alone Again
06.   Referee
07.   Ten
08.   Morning
09.   Sunday At The Getty
10.   Question

Credits:
Bass – Raoul "Wei-Chi" Walton
Electric Piano – Michael Mettke (tracks: 1, 4 to 6)
Written-By – Christian Prommer, Roland W. Appel (tracks: 1 to 8, 10)
Mastered By – Stuart Hawkes
Design [Graphic Design] – Andrew Arnold
Photography By – Jörg Koopmann

Very few terms in the lexicon of music-journo speak raise a doubtful eyebrow as quickly or fiercely as that of "fusion." Often conjuring up memories of putrid jazz collaborations or frightening prog rock experiments, "fusion" is generally examined from a distance, like last week’s lunch. Not so this time around, here the brave German duo of Roland Appel and Christian Prommer step up to produce a mighty tasty, appropriately titled treat. As drummers and core members of both the Trüby Trio (with Rainer Trüby) and Voom Voom (with Peter Kruder), these guys are no strangers to experimenting with and merging a number of sounds and styles. They’ve taken their drum & bass roots to the next level with this album however, leaving earlier Fauna Flash releases in the dust. Fusion is aimed directly at the dance floor, but the arrow is far from straight. "Mother Nature," a thick, dripping and tripping slice of electro-dub, featuring Viennese vocalist Sugar B, is a great introduction to an album that moves successfully from jazz and drum & bass to house, funk, breakbeat and back again. The slinky, sexy and ironically giddy "Alone Again" seats ’70s disco next to nu house. "Ten" is a true schooling in contemporary dance music; it breaks, it boogies, it builds and commands all to shake our bodies down to the ground. Here, Fauna Flash has also created some of the strongest drum & bass tracks I’ve heard in some time. "Free" is pretty, jazzy and sumptuous, merging the feel of mid-’90s jungle classics with fresh, sweet bass drops, kicking percussion and a smattering of disco strings. Things get slightly darker during "Morning," where vocalist Marzenka simultaneously channels Grace Jones, Macy Gray and Leonie Laws over the rough riddims of this slow cooker. Trust the Compost camp to make fusion feel good.

Denise Benson / exclaim! 

Fauna Flash ‎– Aquarius (1997)

Style: Future Jazz, Drum n Bass
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label:  Compost Records

Tracklist:
1.   In The Dangerous Kitchen
2.   Serpico
3.   Experimental Error
4.   Kiss
5.   Top Secret
6.   Synopsis
7.   T.H.E.O.
8.   Blue Lotus
9.   Suited For City-Squiring

Credits:
Written-By, Producer – Fauna Flash
Artwork – Andrew Arnold

Fauna Flash, the drum ‘n’ bass component of Compost Records, drops some hard beats on their first release, Aquarius. The drum tracks on these numbers are quick and oftentimes are well-complemented by the bassline (check out “Serpico” for an example), but the first third of this album doesn’t quite have enough to distinguish itself. Later on, “Kiss” has some of the jazziness that Compost is known for, while “Top Secret” and “Synopsis” go for some spy movie excitement. “Blue Lotus” and “Suited for City-Squiring” are more or less a downtempo tracks. It’s an album worth investigating.

scoundrel  / discogs 

The Durutti Column ‎– Obey The Time (1990)

Style: Abstract, Ambient
Format: CD, Vinyl, Cass.
Label: Factory

Tracklist:
01.   Vino Della Casa Bianco
02.   Hotel Of The Lake 1990
03.   Fridays
04.   Home
05.   Art And Freight
06.   Spanish Reggae
07.   Neon
08.   The Warmest Rain
09.   Contra-Indications
10.   Vino Della Casa Rosso

Credits:
Written-By, Performer, Producer – Vini Reilly
Engineer – Paul Miller (tracks: 1 to 8, 10)
Design – 8vo
Other [Food And Relaxation] – Dry
Other [Hypnosis And Medication] – Sydney Gottlie

Já foi um caso de vida ou de morte para quem respira música — a sua falange de apoio em Portugal, invulgarmente numerosa, que o diga. The Return Durutti Column (1979), LC (82) e Amigos em Portugal (83), discos de culto empilhados ao lado de Closer, Unknown Pleasures e From Gardens Where We Feel Secure, só em Portugal. E talvez no Japão, onde a predilecção maciça por produtos transviados da pop britânica possui tradições que o inimaginável clube de fãs dos Felt (o único...) desde logo confirma.    

O culto provoca • a curto e médio prazo, pelo menos — a cegueira e, no caso muito concreto da música, uma acentuada dureza de ouvido. Daí que talvez nem a ferros se consiga arrancar do mais fervoroso seguidor do guitarrista anti-herói de Manchester o reconhecimento daquilo que nos últimos anos se tomou inteiramente óbvio: que algo se foi perdendo pelo caminho. Não se pode dizer que estejamos perante uma situação de cansaço auditivo, pois tanto o elevado índice de devoção do auditório lusitano como a preservação dos pressupostos da música em causa (concepção atmosférica de sentido feérico e lúdico) tê-lo-ão impedido. A verdade, alojada em camadas mais profundas, parece ser esta: a música de Vini Reilly — sobretudo após a sua passagem pelos estúdios de Paço de Amos — entrou num processo de perda progressiva de consistência quando deixou de ser habitada pela motivação estética e pela pura paixão que, contrariando a sua aparente fragilidade, a distinguiram em pleno tumulto criativo de finais de 70 e inícios de 80.

Em Without Mercy, Circus And Bread e The Guitar & Other Machines — os capítulos, imediatamente posteriores a Amigos Em Portugal e ao ainda brilhante Another Setting —, a simbiose (invulgar nos domínios da pop) entre melodia, improvisação e estruturas rítmicas, resvalou de  uma forma um tanto comprometedora para o território menos auspicioso da gestão de ideias à medida que a energia criativa ia cedendo o lugar a um indisfarçável conformismo estético. A súbita promoção a lugar-tenente de Morrissey, pareceu, a dado passo, mais que uma segunda ocupação em «part-time» visando a liquidez da respectiva conta bancária, a antecipação do destino inevitável de um músico atolado na sua própria desmotivação.

Abordagem do «sampler, inconsequente do ponto de vista estético, The Durutti Column (álbum de 1989, assim mesmo intitulado, ao que se supõe, tendo em, vista a nova clientela adquirida ao lado do ex-Smith) trouxe como novidade os primeiros sinais de vontade de mudança de rumo e, porventura, novas esperanças de revitalização do projecto. Se bem que a consumação de algo esteticamente consistente tenha sofrido novo adiamento. Obey the Time (tomem o titulo à letra) vale pelo que neste momento se apresenta como prioridade fundamental: a confirmação do reacender da chama e a aterragem oficial de Vini Reilly nos anos 90.

Aquilo que se passa nesta nova colecção de exercício de progressão lenta delimitada por duas pequenas peças («Vino Della Casa Bianco» e «Víno Della Casa Rosso»), que se diriam ainda oriundas do primeiro trio de LP, irá — como todos os gestos de mudança — gerar alguma perplexidade no sector ortodoxo dos adeptos dos Durutti Column. Com efeito, a revitalização global do «guitar oriented muzak» de Vini Reilly (e, aqui e além, do velho cúmplice Bruce Mitchell) parece ter sido concebida mediante a incorporação de novos estímulos com a marca da última viragem da década, formando uma camada sobre a qual se repõem em cena velhos jogos contrapontísticos de guitarras (e de guitarra e piano) de progressiva insinuação melódica.

É um baixo invulgarmente poderoso de súbito promovido a pilar do edifício à luz das novas concepções do «house», às quais só terá  permanecido alheio quem muito satisfeito anda com aquilo que tem. É uma reformulação radical da componente rítmica, a denunciar uma estada recente na pista de dança (ele que, ainda há pouco, dizia sarcasticamente ao «New Musical Express»  que «a slow foxtrot» foi sempre o único elemento de dança inerente à sua música). É o inesperado recurso à técnica Jamaicana do «dub» (em «Spanish Reggae»), com a nova arrumação estrutural daí resultante. É, de uma forma global, a articulação de um novo conceito sonoro que passa pela assimilação da noção de «sound system» inventada pelos «disc-jockeys» jamaicanos e consagrada internacionalmente pela equipa Soul II Soul (também ela um ex-«sound system». É, em suma, um rigoroso teste de avaliação dos limites de uma velha devoção, até agora exemplar, e, para os outros, uma proposta de entrada nos anos 90 interessante como tantas outras sem passado histórico. 

Positivamente polémico. Obey the Time é o disco mais estimulante e vivo de Vini Reilly desde 1983.

Ricardo Saló / Expresso

Donald Byrd ‎– The Best Of Donald Byrd (1992)

Style: Hard Bop, Soul-Jazz, Jazz-Funkay
Format: CD, Vinyl, Cass.
Label:   Blue Note

Tracklist:
01.   Change (Makes You Wanna Hustle)
02.   You And Music
03.   Blackbyrd
04.   Think Twice
05.   Onward 'Til Morning
06.   Lanasana's Priestess
07.   Street Lady
08.   Flight Time
09.   Places And Spaces
10.   Wind Parade
11.   (Falling Like) Dominoes (Live)
12.   Steppin' Into Tomorrow

Credits:

Illustration – Hirschfeld

Liner Notes – Chris Philips

One of his last efforts with the Mizell production team was definitely not his most critically acclaimed, but Caricatures continued Byrd's commercial winning streak that started years previous with 1969's Kofi and such '70s Blue Note classics as Places and Spaces, Black Byrd, and Street Lady. His last release for the label was no exception to the formula set forth from the previously mentioned albums. One of Caricatures strongest features is the level of musicianship from start to finish. Byrd recruited some of the top '70s soul-jazz musicians, such as Gary Bartz, Alphonse Mouzon, David T Walker, and future '80s R&B hitmaker Patrice Rushen, to help complement the musicianship laid down by Byrd and the Mizell brothers. The atmosphere is light and soulful, with musicians bouncing off one another for ideas that shift closer towards R&B while maintaining a sense of jazz ideals. While there is no truly memorable anthemic release or hit to speak of, Caricatures serves its primary purpose of being a jazz fusion record to make both people dance and purists wince at the notion that jazz can fuse with other elements and achieve success. 

Rob Theakston / Blue Note

Kamasi Washington ‎– Heaven And Earth (2018)

Genre: Jazz
Format: 2CD, 3CD, Vinyl
Label: Young Turks Recordings

Tracklist:
Earth
1-1.   Fists Of Fury
1-2.   Can You Hear Him
1-3.   Hub-Tones
1-4.   Connections
1-5.   Tiffakonkae
1-6.   The Invincible Youth
1-7.   Testify
1-8.   One Of One
Heaven
2-1.   The Space Travelers Lullaby
2-2.   Vi Lua Vi Sol
2-3.   Street Fighter Mas
2-4.   Song For The Fallen
2-5.   Journey
2-6.   The Psalmnist
2-7.   Show Us The Eay
2-8.   Will You Sing

Kamasi Washington—a tenor saxophonist, bandleader, and composer with the profile of a low-level pop star—designed his second full-length album as a metaphysical dyad, unfolding over two halves that each run over an hour. Far and away the strongest musical statement of his career, it’s also an exercise in contrast, if not outright contradiction.

“The Earth side of this album represents the world as I see it outwardly, the world that I am a part of,” Washington explained in advance press materials. “The Heaven side of this album represents the world as I see it inwardly, the world that is a part of me. Who I am and the choices I make lie somewhere in between.” (According to Discogs, a surprise third part, The Choice, comes as a CD tucked away in the album’s packaging; it wasn’t provided to reviewers, but it’s reported to contain five tracks—almost 40 minutes of additional music.)

This is a high-flown but still more intuitive concept than the one governing The Epic, Washington’s breakout 2015 debut, which sprawled over three hours and trafficked so heavily in heroic archetype that it should have a citation on Joseph Campbell’s Wikipedia page. Heaven and Earth proposes a play of external and internal realities—a bedrock of philosophical thought often framed as mind-body dualism. True to form, Washington presents this bifurcation more spiritually, as a pivoting balance of terrestrial and celestial concerns.

There’s a deadpan self-awareness to the framing of this theme, beginning with an album cover that depicts Washington like a Byzantine icon astride the Sea of Galilee. Musically, the idea coalesces best during the final track on Earth—an adrenalized piece of business called “One of One,” with a heraldic, hard-boppish horn line set against Afro-Latin polyrhythm and a blast of choral voices and orchestral strings. Its cyclical harmonic sequence creates a sensation of endless lift. That ascension brings us to the opening of Heaven, a sparkling interstellar overture called “The Space Travelers Lullaby.” Shifting strings and voices to the foreground, all billowy movement in a major key, it’s a cinematic theme whose rippling euphoria feels both magically ethereal and strenuously earned.

Washington wants it both ways, and that’s what he wants for you, too. As a listening experience, Heaven and Earth contains the most transcendent moments of his output thus far, as well as some of the gnarliest. His version of “Fists of Fury,” the Bruce Lee movie theme, falls into the latter camp, opening the whole affair à la Curtis Mayfield, in soul-warrior mode. The vocals on the track—by Patrice Quinn, a regular member of Washington’s entourage, and Dwight Trible, an emeritus alumnus of Horace Tapscott’s Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra—gradually move further into an exhortative mode. “We will no longer ask for justice,” they each declare, one after the other, in an echoing cadence that evokes the People’s Microphone. “Instead, we will take our retribution.”

Washington has smartly sequenced the double album in a pair of dramatic arcs. And he marshals his musicians with no less careful calculation. The heavy-tread cohesion and cyclonic undertow on Heaven and Earth serve a reminder of how much time has passed since the West Coast Get Down, Washington’s Los Angeles cohort, laid the tracks that became The Epic—late in 2011. Since its blockbuster release in 2015, Washington and his band, the Next Step, have maintained a touring schedule of the sort that few jazz groups are ever able to sustain. Along the way, assorted members of the West Coast Get Down, like bassist-turned-vocalist Thundercat and keyboardist Cameron Graves, have branched out on their own, with varying degrees of success.

A handful of them stand out on Heaven and Earth. Terrace Martin makes his lone appearance count, delivering a molten, supplicatory alto saxophone solo on a bounding modal tune called “Tiffakonkae.” Brandon Coleman fashions a psychedelic synth solo on “Connections,” whose low simmer and melodic contour recall the Joe Zawinul / Miles Davis invention “In a Silent Way.” (He also does excellent vocoder work on “Vi Lua Vi Sol,” suggesting a system upgrade to Sunlight-era Herbie Hancock.) Trumpeter Dontae Winslow distinguishes himself on a handful of tracks, including a syncopated charge through Freddie Hubbard’s “Hub-Tones.”

Scan that rundown of tunes and it’s clear: Washington remains enamored of the jazz tradition even as he insists on reshaping it. The heart of the complaint against him in jazz circles is his limited range as an improviser. He has no real instinct for developing harmonic momentum in a solo, and he slips too often into pentatonic pattern-work, as if an algorithm were kicking in. On the other hand, Washington’s strengths have never been clearer. His sound is sinewy and centered, his rhythmic footing sure. And he’s a catharsis engine who also knows when to shrewdly dial it back. (Hear how he begins his solo on “Song for the Fallen,” as if delivering a confidence.) Anyway, assessing Washington by the same standard as Mark Turner or Chris Potter, or any number of other virtuoso tenors, would be something other than apples-to-apples, and missing the point. One of his core achievements on Heaven and Earth—even more than on The Epic—is to create a framework in which his ardent, expressionistic style can carry a standard into battle.

The album hits its full, glorious stride during its last several tracks. “The Psalmnist,” a taut, unassailable post-bop theme by trombonist Ryan Porter, sparks one of the sharpest Washington solos on the album, before a virtuoso battle royal between drummers Tony Austin and Ronald Bruner, Jr. The next tune, “Show Us the Way,” opens with a modal crush of piano chords that recalls “Change of the Guard,” from The Epic. It culminates, after a rafters-raising Washington solo, in a refrain by the choir: “Dear Lord,” they sing, invoking John Coltrane, “Show us the way.”

The power of that moment, which carries through the final track, “Will You Sing,” lies in a vibrational parallel to the black church, and all the momentous weight that comes with it. Washington is flagrant in aligning his music with a tradition of transcendent struggle. The feeling he’s chasing is the feeling of someone who’s been to the mountaintop and come back with an urgent story to tell.  

                                                                                                                                                                         Nate Chinen / Pitchfork

The Budos Band ‎– The Budos Band II (2007)

Style: Afrobeat, Funk
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label: Daptone Records

Tracklist:
01.   Chicago Falcon
02.   Budos Rising
03.   Ride Or Die
04.   Mas O Menos
05.   Adeniji
06.   King Cobra
07.   My Girl
08.   Origin Of Man
09.   Scorpion
10.   Deep In The Sand

Credits:
Bass – Daniel Foder
Bongos, Congas – Rob Lombardo
Congas – John Carbonella Jr.
Cowbell, Claves, Tambourine – Dame Rodriguez
Drums – Brian Profilio
Flute – Daisy Sugerman
Guitar – Thomas Brenneck
Organ [Farfisa Electric] – Mike Deller
Saxophone [Baritone] – Jared Tankel
Saxophone [Tenor] – Cochemea Gastelum
Shekere, Tambourine – Vincent Balestrino
Trumpet – Andrew Greene, David Guy
Mastered By – Steve Berson
Mixed By – Gabriel Roth, Thomas Brenneck
Recorded By – Gabriel Roth
Executive Producer – Gabriel Roth, Neal Sugarman

The Budos Band's second album, much like their first one, is practically an archeological dig. They've broken down through all the strata of the post-punk/post-disco era to uncover the fertile soil of late 1960s and early 70s Afrofunk and soul-jazz, not to mention funky 70s blaxploitation soundtracks, 60s Now Sound LPs, Ethio-jazz and plain old superbad funk. The end result is something so hip it could kill you in large doses-in the right doses it just plain kills.

The Budos crew hails from Brooklyn, but their outlook is definitely global-- they somewhat restrictively term what they do "Afro-soul," which works well as a basic distillation of what they do and probably at least tells the right people to listen. It's strictly instrumental, but never showy, and they avoid protracted compositions-- there are no twenty-minute Fela-inspired burners on here, just a ton of memorable, concise tracks stuffed with compact solos and big themes played by a big horn section.

The band's rhythm section is truly fantastic. The bass is right in the pocket, the drums keep everything steady and driving, the judiciously employed hand percussion adds a gritty texture, and the guitar does everything from wah'd-out scratching to playing snaky, surfy leads. Checking over the songwriting credits, I was initially surprised to see Smokey Robinson's name in the credit for "His Girl", but listening closely, it is, in fact, based very loosely on "My Girl". It's so thoroughly altered that they could have gotten away with calling it an original, especially at this breakneck tempo, but either way, I'd be willing to bet Smokey never imagined his tune being blasted out by a smoking horn section over a chunky Afrobeat groove.

The band gets into Mulatu Astatke's Ethio-jazz territory on "Origin of Man", which cleverly references Mulatu's homeland of Ethiopia in its title. The dark, deliberate rhythm track is offset by a squealing organ and horns that have just a slight Latin tinge to them. There's not a bad track here, but my favorite might be "King Cobra", which opens with a cool, minor-key passage of film-noir guitar and busts into a crazed horror organ solo after the horns say their part. Opener "Chicago Falcon" has a wicked groove and excellent horn arrangement that pits legato passages against bursts of staccato. It's like the greatest library track DeWolfe never released in the 70s.

This is a supremely entertaining record, perfect for dancing, driving or just providing a soundtrack when you want to nod your head in time to something. The true secret to the Budos Band's success is that they keep it short and to the point. Only a few songs even make it past four minutes, and those are that long because they're able to sustain it. When your whole sound is based on the groove, keeping your listener wanting more is essential, and this does that. While it doesn't really represent a change from their first album, II is proof that the Budos Band's formula is good for a lot of mileage. I know I'll be listening a lot.                                                                              

Joe Tangari / Pictchfork