, and it's really one of the best jazz releases I've heard in awhile. He's a jazz drummer from Chicago, and Jeff Parker and Jeb Bishop (from the Vandermark 5) are in the band. They do some Afro-beat and dub that don't sound like dabbling at all, and some tracks drop out the upright in favor of Korg synth basslines or dissolve into house beats. Those are more like pleasant suprises than the rule though. It's still a jazz album at heart, but there's the sort of melodic sense and clarity of ideas that I really like.
The political angle sort of works the same way. The song titles and liner notes are great and all, but if you come at it expecting some kind of politically explicit music, well, they're still playing jazz (no matter how much historical significance free jazz, afrobeat and reggae have politically...or, maybe it does mattter).
― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 28 June 2004 00:15 (twenty-one years ago)