If you miss the sounds of Herbie Hancock’s plugged in period with The Headhunters or Mwandishi, you’re gonna find an oasis in this album by bassist/guitarist/producer/engineer/composer Frank Swart. He’s recaptured the spirit of those funky jazz days with guests like Gary Bartz/as, George Garzone/ts, Warren Wolf/vib, Bill Evans/ts-ss, Idris Ackamoor/ts-as and Dave Liebman/ts, many of whom are alumnus of the founders of that era.
Swart plays bass, drums and guitars throughout here and there, along with a rotating team that includes Scott Amendola/dr-Simone Pannozzo/dr, Christopher Hoffman/cel and David DR Robbins/sax-fl among others.
Swart’s guitar gives a wacka wooka workout on a bunch of tunes, like the groove laden “The Life” with Robbins’ searing sax, while Bartz is searingly loose over the propulsive drums of Derrek Phillips on “The Call”. Some spacy sitar by Evan Hatfield adds to the bluesy “The Refusal” while Wolf’s vibes bounce on a soulful “The Crossing” Hints of Blaxploitation films hit hard on pieces like “The Test” featuring Chris West’s moody bass clarinet, with Garzone sounding like he’s in an instrumental version of an O’Jays tune on “The Meeting”. Liebman is dark on the ambient “The Road Back” and Evans grooves around Swart’s Hendrixy guitar on “The Approach”.
It may be “music for a film without pictures”, but half the time you’ll be having visions of Richard Roundtree dancing in your head. Can you dig it?
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