Search - Hagans :: Animation Imagination

Word is that when Blue Note Records urged trumpeter Tim Hagans to dig in for a neo-drum & bass session, the brass maestro immersed himself in Roni Size's oeuvre. The sprinting palpitations of Size's music is certainly all over Hagans's Animation, as is the oft-neglected electric 1970s-era Miles Davis. Despite influence, Hagans's conception is sharp and fresh. His trumpet playing reaches far higher than Miles, topping out in fast runs that maintain a tonal fullness that sounds more colored by free jazz than by bop. The acoustic musicians who back Hagans include Billy Kilson and Ira Coleman, each of whom plays with tight, crackling intensity. As for the drum & bass elements, they're certainly reminiscent of On the Corner, with smeary electronic lines and crunchy guitar fronting layered beat samples and breathless speed. Some might associate Hagans's methodology with that of Ben Neill or Bob Green's Grassy Knoll or even Amon Tobin, but Hagans is the most clearly jazzed of the bunch. And as his tribute to fellow brassman Freddie Hubbard, Hagans is a supreme technician and inventive improviser. --Andrew Bartlett