Tenor saxist Geof Bradfield takes us on a tour of the origins of jazz, and it isn’t to the brothels that have become the myth de jour. Instead, Bradfield and his team of Marquis Hill/tp, Joel Adams/tb, Clark Sommers/b and Dana Hall/dr-perc lead us to the church and plantations, where spirituals and field hollers mixed to create a uniquely American genre. Sommers is the foundation here, with his bass setting the pace and cadence of most of the material with an ominous mood on a foreboding “Motherless Children,” creating a call and responsive cadence for the horns on “Mbira Song” or rumbling underneath under Bradfield’s sermon on “Black Girl.” The horns get peppy on the upbeat take of Ledbetter’s “Yellow Gal” and gallop along “Clinton Hill.” You feel like you’re in a rural Sunday Morning meeting as Bradfield warms up the congregation on “Adam in the Garden” as well as on the sermonette “Take this Hammer.” Nice mix of sweat and spirit here.
Origin Records