Upright, fretted, unfretted, four to six stringed, or piccolo, the bass is shown what it can do here when, literally, it is in the right hands on these two sessions.
Charnett Moffett goes solo with the upright (“Bassland”), trio with Angela Moffett/tamboura and Max Moffett/dr on “Lonely Woman” and even shuffles with vocalist Tess Souter on “Natural Heritage.” Chops are flying everywhere, but they never get in the way of the mysterious licks on “Blues Walk Groove” and the shuffling “Overpass” with Oran Etkin’s tenor. Exotic sounds bounce around as well on “Hope” which includes Emily Dickinson’s poetry while Middle Eastern moods pop up on “Swing Raga” with vocalist Jana Herzon.” Let your fingers do the walkin’!
Aaron Germain plays both electric and acoustic basses here, fronting a band with Nguyen Le/g, Frank Martin/key and Deszon X Claiborne/dr. Mary Fettig’s dreamy flute glides over “Antes de Ir” and some funky grooves are enhanced by Van-Anh Vo on “Nhung Bac Thang” while the rest of the time you get some bluesy piano work on Chikurin” and amazing fingerworking by the two axe men on “Ginger Skin.”If you want funk with the B3, “Bunk Bread” will smoke you out of the room, and you’ll want to see Germain perform “Already Not Yet” in concert to see if he’s using mirrors or not. Hip little outing!
Motema Records
Origin Records