Joshua
Redman (soprano/tenor sax); Brad
Mehldau (piano)] Christian McBride (bass); Brian Blade (drums).
A rare event, four
superstars who first lit
up the sky together 26 years ago and
went on to individual pre-eminence, now re-uniting as a
collective constellation. A challenge
to music industry norms , and also to Heraclitus: “No man ever
steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the
same man.” Blade sees it differently: “This band
is like a turntable where the stylus was lifted but the turntable is still
spinning. We just had to drop the needle...”
The album comprises seven new numbers: three from
Redman, two from Mehldau, and one each from the others. While the origins of the
music,
as Blade suggests, are
familiar from
the players’ past, and the
music recognizably
holds on to core jazz tradition, the band
nonetheless leave behind restrictive forms and the songs
have a satisfying balance of adventure and structure. Needless to say, the playing is
outstanding in all respects: four masters of their instruments live up to
the billing. Although
these four have
not recorded together since 1994, Mehldau and Redman are frequent partners with remarkable
rapport, and Redman was joined by Mehldau and Blade for Walking Shadows which impressed
the hell out of our editor -in-chief in 2013
The opener, Undertow, drags you in
with a circling piano
part soon
joined by Redman’s rich inter-locking tenor, relaxing into a subtle, meandering
piano solo, all inter-woven with
remarkable drums and bass, before
a muscly sax solo turns up the heat. Moe Honk is
more light-hearted with
call and response piano/sax leading into fun and games by all, with an
effortlessly fast but
melodic bass solo.
Redman's Silly Little
Love Song is slow, soulful and gospel style , with comforting progressions echoing the likes of I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free. If here is a popular hit in the album
with potential for covering, this is it!
The title
track by Redman, Right
Back Round Again,
is another delight.
Opening with
a classic Mehldau repeated vamp in
unison with agile bass, developing into a high speed skittering sax thread, driven by
remarkable light-as-air bass
and drums. Redman swaps
to soprano for a more angular bluesy workout on McBrides’ Floppy Diss, followed by
Mehldau’s more discursive Father. The
final number, written by Blade, Your Part to Play, is the
most emotional and varied
of the album -
easing
gently in with tender, smouldering sax
slowly building in intensity,
and then subsiding.
Overall, an
enormously satisfying, in places exhilarating, master class - not only in
instrumental and ensemble
playing, but
in seemingly effortless musical ideas and expression. Reading my words,
as I write them, I’m struck by the difficulty of assessing and
appreciating this band: their reputations put the
listener on guard, wanting a miracle at
every turn, and raising expectations
to impossible levels.
So, while Round Again may
not be a landmark moment in
jazz, it’s
certainly a worthy
milestone. More than that,
in these days of virtuosity becoming almost commonplace, it’s a reminder
that virtuoso talent can also deliver great and
accessible music,
ideas and emotions.
Chris
K
Released
July 10 2020,
Recorded September 10-12, 2019 New York
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