Album review: Andromeda Turre – From The Earth, A Jazz Suite (Starbilt Records)

Andromeda Turre (voice, piano, crystal bowls, bell tree); Chelsea Baratz (saxes, EWI); Chien Chien Lu (marimba, vibes), Jacquelene Acevedo (perc.); Riza Printup (harp); M’elle (background/choir vocals); Akua Dixon, Lulu Fontan, Catherine Asaad, Terrell Foster-James (choir); Steve Turre (trombone, shells); ELEW (piano); Richie Goods (electric/acoustic bass); Gene Lake (drums); Harold E. Smith (didgeridoo); + Betty Neals (poetry); Dr. Jifunza Wright-Carter, Ms. Margaret Gordon, Dr. Gladys M. Canals, & Rhonda Hiscock (Interviewees)

Well, here we are only 53 years on from Marvin asking What’s Going On we have something that might be regarded as a sequel. Whilst Mr Gaye sang about social problems as much as ecological ones Turre makes no apology for recognising the existential ecological crisis as the major issue and puts it front and centre on this album.

From The Earth blends interviews with leading ecological specialists with sometimes restrained, sometimes furious, backing. Extra  points go to the mighty left hand of ELEW on piano, the standout musician on the session, which is not to damn the others with faint praise, (Goods on bass and Lake on drums are both consistently excellent). The album splits into four spheres of concern; From The Earth, From The Sky, From The Sea and From The Ice with supporting comments from the interviewees stressing the perils the earth currently faces in each.

Stylistically, we have power ballads, some pure jazz, some soul, a bit of didgeridoo on the opening track, a hint of CSNY’s Déjà vu on Amulena (in its long twisting, sinuous opening vocal line), some samba on Sin Agua No Hay Vida and, on Finger on the Trigger, something that opens as if it were inspired by the Jets in West Side Story but explodes into a pure, Monk-ian jazz frenzy with dazzling runs from pianist ELEW and Chelsea Baratz’ sax trying to blow the bloody doors off, before Hydrosphere hints at Pink Floyd in its first few bars before Turre takes it into ecstatic, powerful gospel. She leaves us with the full screen treatment of Critical Mass which opens with delicate, balletic piano, adds a small choir, and builds to a full widescreen message of faith and hope, underpinned by ELEW’s mighty piano playing. This might suggest a bit of a hotchpotch but it is held together by Turre’s personality. This is a woman on a mission and it is her character that dominates and provides the drive and energy to maintain the focus on her central themes.

It’s a powerful and, occasionally, joyful recognition that we are all going to hell in a handcart. Listening to it I found myself alternating between shaking my head at the despair of it all and slinking silkily round the room with a sway I hadn’t managed since before my last operation.

Her website HERE includes videos for the first two singles from the album Contigo and Earth Waltz, a couple of tracks from Stuttgart last year, and a few others, all of which are worth watching.

From The Earth is out now. Dave Sayer