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hamid Drake
& Bindu
Reggaeology
ROGUE ART 0021
★★★★
Hamid Drake’s brilliance,
flexibility and
power as a drummer
have been long
established through
his work with a wide
variety of strong and
demanding leaders—Fred Anderson, Peter
Brötzmann, David Murray—but in recent years
he’s also emerged as a cagey, thoughtful and
original bandleader, a guy who can match his
technical genius with compelling stylistic concepts.
Reggaeology is the third album billed to
his group Bindu, and like its gripping predecessors,
it features a new lineup and completely different
musical focus. As the album title makes
plain, Drake and company use the slinking,
hypnotic rhythms of reggae to situate typically
interrogatory improvisation and adept group interplay,
but this is no glib musical mash-up.
Before becoming one of improvised music’s
most in-demand percussionists, Drake was active
in Chicago’s reggae scene, and he repeatedly demonstrates
his ease with and mastery of numerous
different rhythms—from the one-drop groove to
the sophisticated tribal feel of Nyabinghy percus-
Jacob
Anderskov
Agnostic
Revelations
ILK 163
★★★★
Over the last decade
or so, pianist
Jacob Anderskov
has emerged as one
of the most exciting
and original voices
in a new, deeply
modern strain of
Danish jazz, embracing
new forms rather than practicing oldschool
bebop. He leads several excellent groups,
including Anderskov Accident as well as a trio
with countrymen, but on this knockout quartet
outing he travelled to New York to work with this
deeply sensitive, selfless ensemble. The album
opener “Warren Street Setup” was freely improvised,
and it’s a testament to the composer’s vision
and the resourcefulness of the musicians that
that performance feels so much of a piece with
the rest of the album.
The music is somber and impressively measured,
and drummer Gerald Cleaver arrives as
something of the secret weapon by holding together
performances that verge disintegration
56 DOWNBEAT NOVEMBER 2010
sion. The elegant trombones of Jeff
Albert and Jeb Bishop summon the
spirit of Rico Rodriguez, albeit with
flashes of extended technique and
stunning agility, accenting individual
melodic invention with a nonchalant
incorporation of the heavy syncopation
around them. Their brassy singing
is complemented by the kinetic
beat-boxing and low-key vocalizing
of Napoleon Maddox, who creates
his own lyrics as well as borrowing
from Lex Hixon’s spiritual writings.
For much of the album guitarist Jeff Parker
lays down free-ranging rhythmic patterns, never
resorting to lazy vamps, and when he lays it open,
as on “Kali’s Children No Cry,” his acid-flecked
tone approaches the coruscating sound of Sonny
Sharrock. On several tracks bassist Josh Abrams
switches to the Moroccan guimbri, tapping into
the Middle Eastern sonorities that are equally important
to Drake, a masterful frame drum player,
yet despite the wide list of ingredients the leader
ties it all together for a rich, accessible experience
that suggests he’s got plenty more to share.
—Peter Margasak
reggaeology: Kali’s Children No Cry; Hymn of Solidarity; Kali Dub;
The Taste of Radha’s Love; Togetherness; Meeting And Parting;
Take Us Home. (68:30)
Personnel: Hamid Drake, drums, tabla, frame drum, vocals; Napoleon
Maddox, vocals, beat box; Jeff Parker, guitar; Jeff Albert,
trombone, Hammond organ; Jeb Bishop, trombone; Josh Abrams,
bass, guimbri.
ordering info: roguart.com
time and time again. With
the exception of “Pintxos
For Varese,” which builds
up a roiling head of steam,
the pieces crawl with an
elusive elegance, as the players
stretch and compress the
tunes with a rigorous rubato
sense, delivering strongly
interactive contributions that
move as a lumbering yet
graceful whole. Anderskov’s
structures emphasize group
momentum, with each player
improvising extensively,
pushing, crying and singing
in restrained, tightly controlled motion, but the
overall effect is remarkably cohesive. Close listening
yields generous dividends, and repeated
plays highlight the composerly feel each participant
brings to the proceedings—especially Anderskov,
who sacrifices ego in order to shape and
direct each piece with ghostly chords and weeping,
dragging lines. The record maintains a very
specific sound, but within that sonic world there
are exquisite riches. —Peter Margasak
agnostic revelations: Warren Street Setup; Be Flat & Stay Flat;
Pintxos For Varese; Blue In The Face; Diamonds Are For Unreal
People; Solstice 2009; Neuf; Dream Arch. (59:11)
Personnel: Chris Speed, saxophone, clarinet; Jacob Anderskov,
piano; Michael Formanek, bass; Gerald Cleaver, drums.
ordering info: ilkmusic.com
Chie Imaizumi
A Time Of New Beginnings
CAPRI 74104
★★★½
The young Japanese-born Chie Imaizumi is a
composer/orchestrator who accentuates the positive
and eliminates the negative. Her themes are
sunny and inspirational, her tempos are upbeat
and her arrangements are fairly conventional
(seldom are reeds and brass voiced together).
Titles like “My Heartfelt Gratitude” and “Many
Happy Days Ahead” reinforce the optimism.
Her eclectic writing doesn’t yet show a clearly
defined identity, through the different motifs and
styles. Just when you peg her as one kind of stylist,
she’ll surprise the dickens out of you. The
last cut closes with a backbeat swing chorus (the
only such passage on the album), and that has a
Latin tag!
Her impressive band cherrypicks some of
the best jazz players from Los Angeles and New
York. Imaizuni lets her musicians show who
they are as soloists: Scott Robinson switches
from sopranino to tenor on the stutter-step “Fun
& Stupid”; Tamir Hendelman’s lyrical piano
on “Gratitude” and “New Beginnings”; soaring
brass ensembles on “Information Overload”
frame Randy Brecker’s bopping flugel and
trumpet; Gary Smulyan’s subterranean baritone
on “Happy Days.”
“Fear Of The Unknown” interrupts the tonal
sunshine with a minor-chord dirge, imprinted by
John Clayton’s melancholy contrabass work—
both arco and pizzicato. But the real wild card is
“Run For Your Life,” a freilich that turns into a
careening trumpet workout for Greg Gilbert and
Terell Stafford (Jewish wedding bands seldom
show this kind of ensemble polish). “Today” is a
sprightly chamber waltz, and the baroque “Happy
Days Ahead” shows the most layered brassand-reeds
writing on the album. —Kirk Silsbee
a time of new Beginnings: My Heartfelt Gratitude; Information
Overload; Fear Of The Unknown; A Time For New Beginnings; Run
For Your Life; Today; Sharing The Freedom; Many Happy Days
Ahead; Fun & Stupid Song. (60:58)
Personnel: Chie Imaizumi, composer/orchestrator; Randy Brecker
(2), Greg Gisbert, Terell Stafford, trumpet and flugelhorn; Steve Davis,
trombone; Steve Wilson, soprano and alto saxophones, flute;
Scott Robinson, clarinet, sopranino, soprano, tenor saxophones;
flute; Gary Smulyan, bass clarinet, baritone saxophone; Mike Abbott,
guitar; Tamir Hendelman, piano; John Clayton, bass; Jeff
Hamilton (1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9), Paul Romaine (2, 7, 9), drums.
ordering info: caprirecords.com