Ms Benjamin stares out of the cover of this album with her trademark defiance. If you’re looking at your audience like that, you better have something to back you up. In the absence of an army, she has joy and energy, attitude and talent to spare. This is a live-in-the-studio recording in front of a small audience at Bunker Studios in Brooklyn. I believe that anyone attending who failed to confirm loudly that they were feeling ‘ALRIGHT!’ was advised to pack a bag and move to New Jersey. Five of the nine tracks are revisits of pieces from her 2023 album, Phoenix, and two (Trane and My Favorite Things) are her tributes to, and acknowledgements of the influence on her music of, John and Alice Coltrane.
Having
established that everyone is alright and telling the audience that we are
celebrating joy, love, life, unity peace and freedom for everybody she launches
into a furious Trane with a long
fluid solo, scattering notes in her wake, the rhythm section sounding like they
are taking large pieces of furniture apart, solid and wooden behind her. Pianist,
Curtis, picks up the challenge, rising and falling through different moods,
before Benjamin storms back in, piercing in a high register, reaching for the
heavens.
It’s
a fatter sound for Phoenix Reimagined as
Randy Brecker brings his trumpet to
the stage. Benjamin’s sax twists and tight turns are full of energy, darting,
and challenge before John Scofield’s guitar joins in. Scofield constructs a
solo from single note runs before stretching out more and building the energy
levels back up. There is no drop off in Brecker’s solo and he matches Benjamin
for joyful ebullience and sheer power before closing with a few sharp jabs; piano
drums and bass are a many-headed single beast driving it all on behind them.
Across Let Go Benjamin rails against
inequalities as this piece of militant soul builds up, brick by brick, into a
fairly solid edifice, the last brick being Kat Dyson’s powerful, blues guitar. Mercy owes more than a nod to Gil
Scott-Heron in its early morning optimism and Benjamin’s solo is steeped in
soul and blues with a lightly dancing, swinging main theme, Strickland’s drums
rolling along in the background. Amerikkan
Skin is a return to the defiance opening with an aggressive, shouted call
to arms. A wailing sax break over pounded piano breaks into tragic tones. This is
music of sorrow and loss, mournful and matched by Curtis’ tumbling piano notes
which climbs into something bold to overcome what has just gone. A sudden stop
sees us into the hope of Peace Is
Possible as Benjamin tries to nurture new hope as she says “We going to be
alright” in the face of home truths, “Another black man dead on the ground.”
New Mornings carries
forward some of the optimism, but you know its heart isn’t really in it.
There’s some lovely playing in it with sudden angular tones, chilled piano and
a rippling solo from Curtis, anchored again by that heavy left hand. Benjamin
closes with another powerful free-blowing solo before she takes My Favorite Things apart and puts it
back in a different way. Curtis’ hammering piano grounds everything else.
Rather than opening with the distinctive melody, Benjamin charges into the tune
and the melody evolves out of her dynamic opening, largely framed by Curtis’
piano. The two sort out the rest of the track between them with Benjamin
blowing wildly over pounding piano before it all comes back together (almost)
in a swinging closing section. It’s a homage to Coltrane but not a blind copy.
Closer,
Spirit, opens with a tumble of notes
from the quartet that then flows into a storming rhythm and blues gallop with
Benjamin’s, by now familiar trilling and punching, darting notes making up her
solo. It’s like a tightrope walk with the audience holding their collective
breath.
Ah,
but this is a marvellous album, matching the standard of Phoenix itself. Having seen her twice since Phoenix was released it’s a pleasure to hear her caught live. Even
more than Phoenix this seems more
personal and stronger, perhaps because this band has been road tested (they
have been all over the world promoting the album) and there are fewer guests on
this than on the studio album. It may be that it’s more powerful because of the
presence of some older tracks, (not that Phoenix
itself had any dips in quality). Whatever the answer, Phoenix Reimagined (Live) is a blazing, furious, defiant statement
of where Lakecia Benjamin is right now and if you don’t like that, you’d better
start packing your bags and looking at train times for New Jersey. Dave Sayer
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