Cindy Blackman - Someday...
Cindy Blackman
Someday...
2001 Highnote Records
Produced by Cindy Blackman
Personnel:
Cindy Blackman - drums
J.D. Allen - tenor sax
Carlton Holmes - piano, Fender Rhodes, keyboards
George Mitchell - bass
Cindy Blackman lives in two worlds. The more constrained one is where she dons a massive afro halo wig and bashes away as the live drummer for Lenny Kravitz or sessions for Joss Stone. The other is arguably her true calling and one she is infinitely suited for -- a jazz drummer and bandleader of great skill and aplomb.
I won't get into the "she's really good for a girl" shtick. It is a bloody stupid premise. Cindy Blackman is really, really good. Period. The fact is that she is probably one of the best drummers actively gigging today goes without saying, since she appears to be quite in demand and not short on offers. But while playing support for big name pop stars may bring in some good coin for the mortgage, its her own solo outings where you see the passion and the heat rise. Someday is a good example of that.
This release sits very well alongside the rest of her Highnote catalog (she has also done extensive recording with the Muse label, although much of the earlier material there leans more towards an M-Base style avant-funk bop), and this is a good thing. This is the second album with relative newcomers Allen/Holmes/Mitchell, but the results are just as coherent --albeit not always as dynamic-- as her albums with players of such repute as Gary Bartz, Ron Carter, Kenny Barron and Ravi Coltrane. It's neo-bop that fans of the Young Lions camp (the Marsalis clan, Joshua Redman) can not feel insulted by, but is not beholden to the rather staid principles it adheres to.
This is a clean, earthy record. Cuts like Glass Slippers and Heaven Sent sound like small stories set to a delicate shuffling beat. There are nods to Miles here, in both standards Someday My Prince Will Come and Walkin'. Even the Rogers and Hart classic My Funny Valentine seems performed with a leaning towards the way Miles would have played it way back when. Those tracks have Blackman operating in a very Tony Williams mode, which works incredibly well, and while Allen is no Wayne Shorter, his overall playing style bears a mild resemblance in his admirable use of space in lieu of cramming notes wherever possible. Holmes does a more than competant job on piano, but his Rhodes playing sounds a bit thin in spots (such as his Walkin' solo), and Holmes plays off of Blackman in a refined way, making his bass a concrete reference point for all the players to come back to.
In general, Blackman plays in a style that is fiery but not obnoxious. She has always exhibited a certain anxious power behind the kit, like a juggernaut aware that it could easily overwhelm, so chooses instead a consciously more subdued approach. She has a solid confidence in her playing and composing that seems to reflect a knowledge and lack of needing to prove anything that have made her solo outings consistently sounding mature and developed, even in the early years. About the only thing this album lacks is some of the real thermonuclear solos of her albums Telepathy and the Oracle. But that is somewhat unfair, as those albums were different sessions, with a different ambience to them. Someday is more about keeping things at a constant simmering rather than bursts of searing heat, and it works on this set.
You might like this if you like:
Greg Osby - Channel Three
Herbie Hancock - Empyrean Isles
Wayne Shorter - Adams Apple
Tony Williams - The Story of Neptune
Wynton Marsalis - Levee Low Moan
Someday...
2001 Highnote Records
Produced by Cindy Blackman
Personnel:
Cindy Blackman - drums
J.D. Allen - tenor sax
Carlton Holmes - piano, Fender Rhodes, keyboards
George Mitchell - bass
Cindy Blackman lives in two worlds. The more constrained one is where she dons a massive afro halo wig and bashes away as the live drummer for Lenny Kravitz or sessions for Joss Stone. The other is arguably her true calling and one she is infinitely suited for -- a jazz drummer and bandleader of great skill and aplomb.
I won't get into the "she's really good for a girl" shtick. It is a bloody stupid premise. Cindy Blackman is really, really good. Period. The fact is that she is probably one of the best drummers actively gigging today goes without saying, since she appears to be quite in demand and not short on offers. But while playing support for big name pop stars may bring in some good coin for the mortgage, its her own solo outings where you see the passion and the heat rise. Someday is a good example of that.
This release sits very well alongside the rest of her Highnote catalog (she has also done extensive recording with the Muse label, although much of the earlier material there leans more towards an M-Base style avant-funk bop), and this is a good thing. This is the second album with relative newcomers Allen/Holmes/Mitchell, but the results are just as coherent --albeit not always as dynamic-- as her albums with players of such repute as Gary Bartz, Ron Carter, Kenny Barron and Ravi Coltrane. It's neo-bop that fans of the Young Lions camp (the Marsalis clan, Joshua Redman) can not feel insulted by, but is not beholden to the rather staid principles it adheres to.
This is a clean, earthy record. Cuts like Glass Slippers and Heaven Sent sound like small stories set to a delicate shuffling beat. There are nods to Miles here, in both standards Someday My Prince Will Come and Walkin'. Even the Rogers and Hart classic My Funny Valentine seems performed with a leaning towards the way Miles would have played it way back when. Those tracks have Blackman operating in a very Tony Williams mode, which works incredibly well, and while Allen is no Wayne Shorter, his overall playing style bears a mild resemblance in his admirable use of space in lieu of cramming notes wherever possible. Holmes does a more than competant job on piano, but his Rhodes playing sounds a bit thin in spots (such as his Walkin' solo), and Holmes plays off of Blackman in a refined way, making his bass a concrete reference point for all the players to come back to.
In general, Blackman plays in a style that is fiery but not obnoxious. She has always exhibited a certain anxious power behind the kit, like a juggernaut aware that it could easily overwhelm, so chooses instead a consciously more subdued approach. She has a solid confidence in her playing and composing that seems to reflect a knowledge and lack of needing to prove anything that have made her solo outings consistently sounding mature and developed, even in the early years. About the only thing this album lacks is some of the real thermonuclear solos of her albums Telepathy and the Oracle. But that is somewhat unfair, as those albums were different sessions, with a different ambience to them. Someday is more about keeping things at a constant simmering rather than bursts of searing heat, and it works on this set.
You might like this if you like:
Greg Osby - Channel Three
Herbie Hancock - Empyrean Isles
Wayne Shorter - Adams Apple
Tony Williams - The Story of Neptune
Wynton Marsalis - Levee Low Moan
posted by theloniusfunk at 4:32 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home