Now, I realized that many of you are going to have to take this statement on faith, but once upon a time, modern jazz was actually POPULAR. Yes! It’s True! They played it on the airwaves, filled places like the Hollywood Bowl with it and sold millions of records with it. This is not Benghazi-it’s the truth!
Don’t believe me? Just ask the guy who made this latest disc-drummer Harvey Mason. He was on many of those sessions that mixed jazz with rock, soul and funk and made them sell without resorting to Kenny G limpness. Mason revisits some of those tunes, and makes them work in the 21st Century as well. These were the days when electronic keyboards were on almost every disc, and Kris Bowers and Mark de Clive-Love make them work to perfection on pieces such as the sleek “Black Frost” (with a hip tenor solo by Kamasi Washington) and a (dare I use the term?) LAID BACK reading of Donald Byrd’s “Places and Spaces” that feature Christian Scott/tp and Corey King/voc to soulful perfection. The reading of Herbie Hancock’s gazillion seller “Chameleon” is delivered a bit more (here I go again) MELLOWER than the original version, but it slides and slinks to perfection. An irresistible funk groove is delivered on “Before the Dawn” while “If I Ever Lose This Heaven” with EW&F-ish vocals puts the soul back into jazz. Where did we make the wrong turn from this stuff? GIT DOWN!
Concord Records