Joel Harrison: Anthem of Unity

One of the most prolific of today’s electric guitarists, Joel Harrison goes the groove route here with the classic B3 combo sounds with groovemeisters Gary Versace/B3-p, Gregory Tardy/ts-cl and legendary drummer Jack DeJohnette, who’s in a surprisingly funky chicken mood.

The team is slow and mellow on the easy pulse of “Anthem Of Unity”, with Tardy blowing smoke rings over DeJOhnnete on the spacy “Survival Of Instinct”. Harrison rocks it a bit on the mid tempo “Today Is Tomorrow’s Yesterday” and rocks it even harder on a surprisingly extroverted read of “Doxy’. The team wacka-wooka’s through “Mohawk Valley  Peace Dance” while Harrison and DeJohnette exchange glances on “Parvati”. On the subdued side, DeJohnetter and Versace hum on the pretty and tensile “Migratory Birds” and Tardy goes to clarinet and Versace switches to piano for a pretty and folksy read of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’”. Strong strings.

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