Label: Ojc
Category: Music
Average customer rating:
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1
UPC: 025218679923
EAN: 0025218679923
ASIN: B000000YZS
Release Date: 1994-01-15
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Artist:
Chico Freeman
Label: Ojc Category: Music Average customer rating:
Media: Audio CD Number Of Discs: 1 UPC: 025218679923 EAN: 0025218679923 ASIN: B000000YZS Release Date: 1994-01-15 |
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A very special session.......2004-02-05
As a young man in the late seventies and early eighties, Chico made a series of very fine albums including Chico, Morning Song, Beyond the Rain, Spirit Sensitive, The Outside Within, and Destiny's Dance, mostly on small independent labels like India Navigation and Contemporary (a division of Fantasy out of San Francisco). Of these, Destiny's Dance seems to me to be the most accomplished; he's honed his "outside in" approach to maximum impact, has perhaps his best band, and there just seems to be some kind of magic in the air--although it must be said that any of these are worth hearing. This was the Heyday of Contemporary. They had a fine stable of young players and seasoned veterans: Bobby Hutcherson, George Cables, Art Farmer, Barney Kessel, Frank Morgan, Benny Golson, Tom Harrell.
On to the music. From the first few notes of the extremely tricky--melodically and rhythmically--unison tenor/trumpet passage that opens the first song on Destiny's Dance, you can tell something special's afoot. When the tempo rockets forward as the whole band roars in, featuring even more daring unison tenor/trumpet playing, followed by some impossibly tasty solo licks from a very young Wynton Marsalis, a gripping short solo from Freeman, and Bobby Hutcherson all over his vibes like a tarp covering the infield, you're in some kind of zone only the greats can access.
More unison lines, this time with Wynton on muted trumpet and Freeman on bass clarinet, presenting a radically different soundscape, open "Crossing the Sudan," underpinned by McBee's mesmeric bass figures, lending the piece a hugely exotic feel--you're there, bobbing up and down as your camel keeps pace with the others in the caravan.
In between we get another one of those beatiful, mystery-laden Arabic-tinged compositions from Bobby Hutcherson, "Same Shame," marvelously, effortlessly rendered by the quartet (Marsalis and Dennis Moorman on piano sitting out).
"Wilpan's Walk," an attractive burner from Cecil McBee follows, featuring the full septet, Paulino Da Costa on scintillating percussions joining Freeman, Marsalis, McBee, Moorman, Hutcherson, and the great Ronnie Burrage on drums. A high-wire act from beginning to end, this tune displays a level of small-group interaction that simply astounds.
More interesting unison sonorities--bass clarinet/arco bass--open "Embracing Oneness," a very hip slow number that shifts between freeish and bop-tinged bloozy passages. Quite beguiling.
The disc closes with what begins as another all-out burner, "C & M," again featuring some jaw-dropping unison playing. But then it shifts to a slow passage, revs up again, slows down, cruises for a while, and finally blasts into the stratisphere with a mind-boggling outro, an entirely apt close for these supercharged proceedings.
My only complaint is that at 36:34 it's a little on the short side. But that's no biggie. The overall brilliance of this session more than makes up for its brevity. And anyway, there's something to be said for gettin' in, gettin' it done, and gettin' out.
All in all, a stunning performance.
Don't Miss This !.......2002-04-24
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