Reaching its halcyon days in the 70s, fusion has made its way back into the jazz scene, or did it ever really leave? Here are three recent releases of bands that plug it in.
Slivovits consists of Derek Di Perri/harm, Marcello Giannini/g, Vincenzo Lamagna/b, Salvatore Rainone/dr, Ciro Riccardi/tp, Pietro Santangelo/ts and Riccardo Villari/v. The team has a foundation of thick grooves supplied by Lamagna’s funky bass line, and on pieces like “Currywurst” and “Mai Per Comando” deliver a AWB styled soul groove, with some rocking guitar on “Cleopatra Through.” Things get a bit free and traffic jammed on”Mani In Faccia” but the music from the concerts in Milan Italy always get out of the congestion like a Masserati weaving out of the pack, cruising to a finish on the hip pulses like “Caldobagno.” Tower of Italian Power.
Caught at a concert in Serbia the team of Dusan Jevtovic/g, Vasil Hadzimanov/key, Pera Krstajic/b and Pedja Milutinovic/dr creates spacey moods and sounds akin to NASA. Guitars and keys mix with electronic boogie on “No Answer” with a pulsating yet introspective keyboard on”Angel/Al Aire-Soko Bira.” Chunky guitar riffs get peppy on “New P op” and jazzy piano and bass leads to a dramatic climax on “Briga.” Some vocal changes and Indian harmonies fill up “Babe” and the “Outro” closes the set with some navel gazing electronics. Put on your space helmet for this trip into the atmosphere.
The studio recording lead by Dominique Vantomme/key-moog-p with Michel Delville/g, Tony Levin/b-chapman stick and Maxime Lenssens/dr ranges from hard rocking drums and blues fusion on “Playing Chess With Barney Rubble” to plodding thunder mixed with spacey abstractions during “Equal Minds.” Long undulations of keyboards on “Double Down” build up to to a pastoral climax with the team creating a musical avalanche on the rolling and tumbling “Agent Orange” with Levin laying down the law. Deep grooves and shots into places where no man has gone before.