2 New Blue Note Releases
Meshell Ndegeocello/The Omnichord Real Book & David McMurray/Grateful Deadication 2
The thing I love about Meshell Ndegeocello's The Omnichord Real Book is that it takes me back to my youth, when I could listen to all kinds of music without thinking much about its origins or whether it was high brow or low brow or pop, jazz, or rock, whether it was anything but an expression by one artist, or a group, of something that can't really be put into words. A time, also, when you could relax into an album that is a double LP's length, giving the tracks a chance to build on one another until a sense of its internal structure and language begins to develop.
Is it a jazz album? Is it a hip hop album? Is it pop music? There is a deep vein of Black music and history running through this set of songs. To some listeners the rhythm section and guitar part on "Omnipuss", will be reminiscent of Remain in Light when it actually references the same (black) antecedent: Afro-pop. Music of the diaspora has created such a variety of influence on music in so much of the globe as to be omnipresent. Like Sun Ra, Meshell Ndegeocello creates new mythologies and then creates the music to transport us to the new worlds they imply.
The Omnichord Real Book is the work of a mature artist who has honed her creative landscape for three decades now. The bridge she has created between jazz and a variety of popular music styles on records like The Spirit Music of Jamia: Dance of the Infidel and The Omnichord Real Book is real and it provides a real path for improvisational music to be part of the mix going forward. Over the years Ndegeocello has become a trusted collaborator with Oliver Lake, Don Bryon, Kenny Garrett, Robert Glasper, and Jason Moran, among others.
She also continues the conversation between the artist and the studio that goes back to Miles Davis' Bitches Brew and On the Corner. There's no longer any question that the studio is the playground for these talented musicians, but like Miles or Sly Stone, she uses the technology to enhance her vision of the music and present the playing of live musicians in a way that creates something new. Like Miles she tries to create the environment for musicians to explore the music she's working on, taking them in as contributors. Interestingly, her interest in the Omnichord itself as a compositional vehicle was, in part, due to her interest in composing away from computer screens:
“I found that working on the computer started bringing my spirits down. The Omnichord gave me a way to work out melodies and ideas without having to look at a screen. I’ve been working on computers since my fourth record. I wanted to stop looking at the music and just play and hear the music.”
There is a lot of fantastic music on The Omnichord Real Book, and it will evoke different feelings, memories, thoughts, and emotions in every listener. Joel Dorn said that the most pointless thing you could do in liner notes was to try to describe the music on the record. I generally agree, but I can’t help but discuss the track, “The Fifth Dimension” if only to mention that is the most incredible musical experience I’ve had for some time. Featuring the family singing group Hawtplates, the track creates an open, chill out space with floating ambient piano and sound washes coupled with otherworldly vocals and skittering drums that drop in and out with the flick of a switch. We get a bright alto sax solo and then the vocals settle into a chant: “It’s give and take, this humble love/It’s never hate, it’s humble love/The higher state is humble love.”
The track was inspired in part by seeing Questlove’s documentary Summer of Soul, which featured a performance by sixties vocal group The Fifth Dimension. In the documentary we see group members Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. watching the unearthed performance footage for the first time, bringing tears to their eyes. “Watching that movie was life-changing for me,” said Ndegeocello. “It made me want to go back to that vocal group. But because that historic moment was kept from us for so long, it also sometimes makes me want to watch America burn.” Just an example of the beauty and ugliness that coexist on The Omnichord Real Book.
Certainly a number of things have happened in the nine years since Ndegeocello released new original material: global pandemic, death of her parents, a rising tide of authoritarianism and hostility towards hard won civil rights, a planet that is rapidly becoming less hospitable. You know, life stuff. And she has a lot to offer, musically, in response to that. But she's tired of playing roles or living up to others' expectations, as her comments about the record make clear:
“With this record, I’m moving from the dogma of religion, my parents, the American dream, and politics. I’m also moving from the musical dogma set on myself, which was that I am supposed to be funky, soulful, political, and all the other things all of the time. If this is my last project, I feel like it is the most authentic thing I have to offer.”
While I highly doubt that The Omnichord Real Book will be her last recording, it is a stunning breakthrough for her to a land where there are no real competitors, merely others who are truly 'beyond category' in the words of Duke Ellington.
The music of the Grateful Dead isn't really jazzy. It doesn't swing so much as it slides or shuffles or trucks along. But the music of Garcia, Weir, and Company has found a surprising interpreter in the person of saxophonist David McMurray. Detroit native McMurray is perhaps best known as the long time saxophonist in the band Was (Not Was), but he’s also long been a studio ace who has played with The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bootsy Collins, Iggy Pop, Mitch Ryder, and a long list of others.
McMurray's sax tone often draws comparisons to Grover Washington Jr., and that's apt, but I also hear the muscular drive of Sonny Rollins at times when the group shifts into a more Caribbean vibe, while at others McMurray recalls King Curtis' soulful style.
I sometimes ask myself who is the audience for records like this. It's hard for me to imagine real diehard Dead fans throwing this on when they could just as easily choose from the band's gargantuan library of recorded output. On the other hand, how many jazz or instrumental fans are looking for an album of Dead covers? But the answer must be pretty many, because McMurray and company went to the trouble of recording a second disc of Dead covers, Grateful Deadication 2, released last month.
In fact, there has always been a market for top notch instrumentalists who can interpret a hit pop or soul song of the day, enabling musicians like King Curtis, Ramsey Lewis, Booker T and others to have solid careers for decades. Not too many jazz or pop instrumental artists have been interested in the music of the Grateful Dead despite the obvious opportunity the songs provide for improvisational development. I think that one reason for this is that people don't think of Grateful Dead songs as having great melodies, but in fact a number of them do. In addition to the melody provided by the lead vocals, there are many flourishes on guitar or piano or bass that provide counterpoint to the main melody.
“I always pick songs that have a melody where, even if I played it by myself on the saxophone, you would know it,” McMurray explains. “So I look for songs that have that magic in them.”
And so Dave and the group lead off with a version of "Playing in the Band" that has a soulful drive. "China Cat Sunflower" is a little more laid back at first, but it becomes a vehicle for MacMurray to work up some real sparks that light a Latin fire. "Bird Song" allows him to spotlight some flute.
The record has plenty of upbeat moments as well. MacMurray gives "Truckin'" a greasy soul jazz organ quartet built on Detroit swagger and blows a scorching solo as well as giving Maurice O'Neill room to spread out on the B-3. "Scarlet Begonias" featuring a vocal by Oteil Burbridge, doesn't differ much from the Dead's Caribbean feel, though the band tacks on a nice instrumental coda. McMurray and company bow out with "Crazy Fingers", a gentle reggae number from Blues For Allah, which they imbue with extra layers of fire as MacMurray rides the track out on sheets of harmonic rain, finally resolving into quiet.
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