It was two years almost to the day (April 7) when the Jazz Defenders tore Hoochie apart with some danceable hard bop. That was quite a night. A couple of weeks back they played Cluny 2 but it clashed with several other gigs that same evening so I didn't make it.
However, I've just received their latest album - Memory in Motion - so that goes some way to compensate for my disappointment. In fact it goes quite a long way indicating just how far they have moved forward. Not in a straight line but via a scenic route that encompasses the inner city, and the urban sprawl as well as the rolling countryside before arriving in Paris.
Rapping from Doc Brown, funky soulful grooves, Blue Note riffs, maybe some overdubbing, you name it. The horns going for broke, Cooper, swinging on piano and vibes, a power player on B3, is at his most sensitive on the piano feature, Enigma (Live in Paris), that closes the album. Truly a pièce de résistance comparable with any keyboard track I've heard this year. With sympathetic support from Harris, the pianist/composer paints a picture that, were it, by some jiggery pokery (AI), to be transferred to canvas it would surely be hung in the Louvre next to that lady with the mystic smile. Maybe it was inspired by Mona L? If so she should feel honoured. Lance
Meanderthal; The Long Haul; Chasing Fantasies; Rolling on a High; Take a Minute; Fuffle Kershuffle; Snakebite Playfight; Net Zero; Enigma (Live in Paris)
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