Telepathic interplay from Wilson's finest group.
Troy Collins | Lancaster, PA United States | 08/18/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"To call the music of drummer Matt Wilson's quartet "free-jazz" would be careless. While there are spirited moments of impassioned playing by the soloists, categorizing the group's excursions as unstructured free-jazz would be a misnomer. The quartet's tunes are often chart-driven with tricky horn accompaniment and non-traditional solo orders that defy staid jazz traditions.
Wilson's latest outing begins with the appropriately titled "Thank You Billy Higgins". The tune is irresistibly bouncy free-bop in the vein of Ornette Coleman's classic early '60s Atlantic sides. This is, of course, no coincidence, since Billy Higgins was Coleman's main drummer at that time.
Coleman's spirit presides over a majority of the tunes on Humidity, but not in a debilitating way. Wilson has a crisp, clean post-bop drumming style that recalls Higgins, albeit with a modern sensibility that includes everything from world music flourishes to straight up rock and funk. While his writing style owes a good bit to Coleman's influence, there are plenty of pieces that are uniquely his own.
Take for example "Free Willy," one of the albums' standout tracks. The tune touts a heady mix of rhythm changes taken at a breakneck tempo, switching seamlessly from a sprightly bop theme -- complete with dueling saxophones -- to a quiet middle section featuring a slow-burn bass solo. The number progresses through a series of trading fours between the drummer and saxophonists and makes a return to the head melody. It's the sort of tune that would make Charles Mingus proud.
In addition to the up-tempo material, there are some quieter tunes of a more chamberesque nature. There are guest spots by a pair of brass players and even Wilson's wife on violin on three tracks. The variety of these pieces helps to flesh the album out and keep the sound of the quartet fresh. "Raga", complete with modally driven horn lines soaring over hand percussion and bowed bass sounds exactly like you would imagine it sounds.
Halfway through the album, the title track breaks open with a drum machine riff that quickly gets overshadowed by the ensemble's gradual entrance, until funk drumming kicks in. Wilson's previous albums have dabbled in this sort of territory before with less successful results, usually bordering on trivial stabs at rock or lame funk. But here he seems to have nailed it. It works in all the right ways.
This quartet has been together as a touring ensemble for over five years now, and their musical empathy shows real signs of growth. Humidity finds Matt Wilson and his cohorts at their finest. In an age where jazz musicians often lack the financial ability to maintain a steady touring unit, this quartet sets a fine example of the sort of telepathic interplay that can be achieved by endless nights of playing side by side on the road. Studio jam sessions come and go, but groups like this are a rarer beast indeed.
(This review was originally written for the online webzine: junkmedia.org, and was published there March 25th 2003)"
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1