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MUSIC<br />
©Photo by Sandrine Lee<br />
So, variety serves as a building<br />
block when it comes to<br />
DeJohnette’s point of view. He<br />
admires ambling a bit as much<br />
as he does a forthright gait. The<br />
former tack functions as a subtext<br />
of this album, whose title<br />
insightfully harks to a Thomas<br />
Wolfe quote about Americans<br />
being “fixed and certain” only<br />
when they’re “in movement.” In<br />
“Two Jimmys,” the trio spends<br />
time noodling, setting up a contemplative<br />
mood rather than<br />
iterating a melody. Because<br />
they’re such impressive players,<br />
the extended pulse of Garrison’s<br />
bass and the drummer’s high<br />
hat houses enough personality<br />
to make the piece valuable. With<br />
a slightly Eastern feel, Coltrane<br />
links a string of curt phrases<br />
with tone and texture rather than<br />
thematic logic. Garrison’s synths<br />
enhance the drone effect, and a<br />
slightly eerie outing becomes an<br />
inspired lynchpin between John<br />
Coltrane’s hymn-like “Alabama”<br />
and Miles Davis’ sublime “Blue in<br />
Green”—two of the record’s most<br />
reflective pieces.<br />
Investigation and scenesetting<br />
are band fortes. Whether<br />
searching for the essence of a<br />
ballad or establishing a barroom<br />
backbeat on a romp through<br />
“Serpentine Fire,” the players<br />
take their time and glance around<br />
the territory they’re roaming. Coltrane<br />
shines on the Earth, Wind &<br />
Fire nugget, sniffing out an array<br />
of options while dancing through<br />
the melody. It’s a soprano feature,<br />
and the straight horn gets<br />
plenty of time on this album. It’s<br />
also used to shape the delicate<br />
moves of “Lydia” and “Blue in<br />
Green” (one of two pieces where<br />
the drummer forsakes his traps<br />
for piano). Yet the apex of equilibrium<br />
arrives at the start, when<br />
he guides his tenor through “Alabama,”<br />
his dad’s ode to the 1963<br />
Birmingham church bombing<br />
that killed four black schoolgirls.<br />
With DeJohnette directing via<br />
tom-toms and cymbals, the trio<br />
captures both loss and sorrow in<br />
one heart-wrenching swoop.<br />
Another Trane nod arrives in<br />
“Rashied,” a sopranino/drums<br />
flurry that harks to the impact of<br />
the master’s animated duets with<br />
Rashied Ali on 1967’s Interstellar<br />
Space but also conjures such<br />
jewels as Anthony Braxton and<br />
Max Roach’s Birth & Rebirth. Its<br />
aggression is as formidable as<br />
its grace, and as the dust settles<br />
after the explosion of ideas<br />
and supercharged momentum,<br />
it becomes obvious that this<br />
group—like past DeJohnette<br />
aggregates—is charged<br />
with creating a broad set of<br />
experiences. They are multitaskers<br />
of the highest order.<br />
—Jim Macnie<br />
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124 TONE AUDIO NO.78 A MASTERPIECE OF DESIGN AND ENGINEERING
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