Here’s an exciting album by this generation’s prophetic voices mixing jazz with modern sounds that crosses all lines of taste. Tenor sax titan Kamasi Washington takes part in this sessoin with Matt Montgomery/b-p, Gregory Howe/g-b-B3, Erik Jekabson/tp-fh, Mike Hughes-“Lumpy”/dr, Kasey Knudsen/as-ts, Ross Howe/fg and Mike Blankenship/key, with Montgomery and Howe doing the lion share of composing.
Unlike Washington’s solo works, the tunes here are all fairly concise, clocking in at around 2-5 minutes, so the thing here is the feel, with Howe and Washington rocking out on the driving “Sublime In The Base” or Montgomery laying down a funky line for some hip tenor sax echoes on “Third Reflection”. Jekabson’s horn is urgent as the horns ricochet on “Innerspatial Search” and dark moods created by the keyboardists take you down Noir Alley on “Another Moth Drawn To City Light”. Washington honks like he’s walking the bar on “Battle Thicket” and you feel like you’re on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride for the exciting turns and tribulations during “Surrender At Station Three” and “Marching Instructions”. These guys make jazz fun again! Any tours coming up?