Search - Tim Hagans, Bob Belden :: Re-Animation Live

Anyone who thought that Tim Hagans's freewheeling 1999 release, Animation/Imagination was primarily a studio creation will be pleasantly surprised with that album's live follow-up: Re-Animation: Live in Montreal. Where the original Animation thrust the usually bebop-identified trumpeter into an improv-heavy setting that relied on preprogrammed drum loops and textures courtesy of several drum & bass DJs, the new live recording by the core of musicians who recorded that album ups the ante even further.A live recording from the group's first concert date, Re-Animation shows Hagans continuing to push the envelope far beyond the string of bebop-like releases that marked his career until last year. It's fitting that Hagans's racing trumpet paid homage to fusion-era (and after) Miles Davis on Electrifying Miles, a sprawling big-band session with the Finnish UMO Jazz Ensemble. Clearly indebted to the high fusion of Miles, Hagans's "Hud Doyle," "Are You Threatening Me?" and "Animation/Imagination" sound almost as if they were lifted whole from Miles's Pangaea. Still, this isn't a simple retread: the presence of DJ Kingsize, who layers in furious drum & bass loops that work remarkably well with Billy Kilson's frenetic drumming, and keyboardist Scott Kinsey, who adds some random sampling effects to the group's electronic textures, push the album into new terrain. Hopefully, Re-Animation won't find the same negative-crossover that kept Davis's fusion classics out of print for years. Hagans's set might be perhaps too sample-heavy and drum-loop-driven for jazzheads and not bass-heavy and concise enough for the dance floor drum & bass crowd. Both those crowds though, will find plenty to feast on here if they listen with open ears. --Ezra Gale