Peter Somuah: Highlife (ACT 8001-2)
Koo Nimo, a leading 93-year-old highlife musician and apparently the first Ghanaian to release an album of his own music, introduces this fine album with a brief retrospective on how highlife developed. It provides an excellent overview of the music that Peter Somuah explores on his latest album for ACT. More than previously, Somuah reflects on and acknowledges the political context in which he grew up in Ghana. Although the highlife sound is one of hypnotic rhythms and pulsing, infectious melodies, the music does have a darker side, rooted in the days of colonialism when only the ruling elite could afford entry to the clubs where the music was performed. Somuah works the topics of social justice and the greed of political leaders into a highly thoughtful but accessible collection of tracks with skill and care. The music is first class, but the stellar work of the rhythm section deserves special mention, lifting the album to a different level. A superb listen with the added bonus of being culturally informative as well.
Ross Valory: All Of The Above (OiD Music)
Valory’s rock pedigree is impressive. He’s an original member of the group Journey (of Don’t Stop Believin’ fame) and a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and it’s fair to say that this debut solo album, 12 years in the making, is influenced way more by a life lived in performing rock music than jazz. Valory has progressed from playing bass to composing tracks on the album as well as playing a range of instruments including keyboards and flute.
It’s enjoyable stuff, with several tracks propelled by soaring guitar solos and more than a hint of power ballads and stadium rock shaping the compositions. Tomland and Nightflower both highlight Valory’s ear for a catchy, driving melody. The only real connection with jazz is Valory’s take on Horace Silver’s Senor Blue, but even here we are more into jazz-rock territory than perhaps some would like. Overall, a high energy album full of fine musicianship, but there are one or two dead spots – none more so than Low Rider, a silly song with grating vocals from Josh Ramos. Sometimes, old rockers really don’t know when it is time to stop.
Gino Amato: Latin Crossroads (Ovation Records OV-04-GA)
Arranger and pianist Gino Amato’s ambition with this album was to present Latin music in an accessible format in a unique and fresh way. However, given its infectious rhythms and easy-listening appeal, I am not sure what it is about Latin music that Amato thought wasn’t already engaging enough. The plan on Latin Crossroads seems to have been to apply the Latin feel to a variety of musical styles, ranging from pop, jazz and musicals through to classical.
The trouble is that the approach has often diluted the feel and sentiments of the source material, drowning it with a big-band brashness, rhythm patterns and vocals that soon sound all the same. Whether it is Paul McCartney’s Blackbird, Monk’s Round Midnight or even Tchaikovsky’s Romeo And Juliet, as the album progresses the idea of this as a project to showcase Latin music sounds ever more questionable. Bludgeoning songs like this with the feel of Latin America makes it sound like one of those James Last beach party LPs that were churned out regularly throughout the 60s and 70s.
Bill Laurance and Michael League: Keeping Company (ACT 9061-2)
The oud has such a wonderfully evocative and mysterious sound that it is impossible not be drawn to music performed on the instrument. Couple Michael League’s virtuosity on oud and fretless bass with the equally impressive talents of pianist Bill Laurance and Keeping Company has all the ingredients of a captivating and engaging listen.
From their work together as part of the band Snarky Puppy, Laurance and League have clearly developed a highly intuitive way of communicating with each other and their audience through music. The deceptively simple melodies on Keeping Company build an atmosphere that draws the listener in and holds the attention. League lays down some powerful rhythms on fretless bass for Laurence to pick up and run with as he weaves in melodies on the piano. Sounding very much like a spontaneous conversation, it has both men drawing on a range of influences from all around the Mediterranean between North Africa and southern Europe. Jazz and folk influences are also at work in the compositions.
The simple joy of making music is perhaps shown to best effect on How Does It Feel – with League slapping out a bluesy bassline over which Laurance lays down some chords that develop the song over its four-minute lifespan. Pared-back music that sometimes swings, sometimes haunts, sometimes broods, but always engages.
Ed Neumeister Quartet+3: Covers (MeisterOfMusic 0023)
Neumeister and some chums kick around various cover versions ranging from the Beatles to Taylor Swift. Neumeister has a distinctive voice on trombone, often growling out the notes; this gives his sound a vocal quality that sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t on the interpretations on offer.
A lively, swinging take of Rocky Raccoon gets the set underway, showing the band as a well-integrated unit in which its members are more than able to play off one another with inventive ideas that sound crisp and interesting. And yet, it always interests me that so many jazz interpretations of the Beatles ride roughshod over the thoughts behind the original songs, getting lost in solos and ideas that leave the original material sounding almost irrelevant. That happens here, with the result that the five Lennon and McCartney tracks end up sounding indistinguishable. A couple of Led Zeppelin songs get the same treatment. As for that Taylor Swift song The Last Great American Dynasty, I know nothing of her material at all, so Neumeister and his quartet could have done any number of clever things with it and I would be none the wiser.
Listenable enough, Covers is a good example of technique simply overwhelming the material, leaving the record feeling clever rather than truly engaging musically. And the sound of the trombone (any trombone, not just Neumeister’s) has an unintentional comedy element to it that means it is often difficult to take it seriously as a lead instrument with its undertone of slapstick humour, circuses and custard pies in the face.