Barry Romberg's Random Access, Crab People

Drummer-Composer-Bandleader Barry Romberg has scored big with his Random Access band on the 2-CD set Crab People (Romhog 123). This is his twelfth release and, though I wasn't counting, this one corks it!!

The band includes Ben Monder and Geoff Young on very electric guitars, and some very hip players in general going after a post-Milesian-fusion-rock that is very advanced-funky and harmonic-line advanced as well.

Kelly Jefferson and Kirk McDonald play soprano-tenor and tenor, respectively and they sound good. Trumpet, two contrabasses, electric bass, percussion and keys round things out and it all hangs together exceptionally well.

About half the album puts together spontaneous compositional junkets, the other half addresses written motifs and their jammed, highly sound-colored realizations.

It's music that is out and grooves too. Really grooves when it gets into the mode. This is one hell of an electric band in a very adventuresome mood.

If you like out fusion, this will kill you!

Ligro, Dictionary 2

From Jakarta, Java, Indonesia, there's Ligro, a guitar-bass-drums fusion outfit that brings it on. Their first international release, Dictionary 2 (MoonJune 047), is at hand, and I for one am glad of it.

It's a fusion trio that has absorbed the Lifetime-McLaughlin-and-beyond legacy and made something of their own of it. This is music with bite. No small part of that is due to the playing of Agam Hamzah. He has facility, a great harmonic-fuse sense. He writes well too. And he can pace a solo with taste and drama, never at a loss for ideas. Adi Darmawan plays bass the way bass should be played in an ensemble like this--strongly foundational and rock solid, yet loose when called for and in no way cliched. Drummer Gusti Hendi has great chops, the independence to get the complex sounds that drive and goes his own way to boot, avoiding the repetitive formulaic approach and hitting it with full force.

It's a rather amazing debut. It's hard-hitting all the way but there's plenty of variety, even including an interpretation of Stravinsky's "An Easy Piece Using Five Notes."

It's a surefire winner for anyone who digs on advanced guitar wielding, the fused arts, and a hot trio going at it with music that rises above the repetition of accepted formulas to make something very much new out of it all. You are warned: things are happening musically in Indonesia today. This is an important piece of that and it should not be missed! Hurrah to MoonJune for bringing this to us.

Rick Drumm and Fatty Necrosis, Return from the Unknown

When Larry Coryell cranked his guitar in an early incarnation of the Gary Burton group back in the mid-sixties, it caused a sensation. One side felt that this jazz-rock, as it came to be called, was the music of the future. Another very vocal side thought it an abomination. The music persisted and flowered with Miles Davis, John McLaughlin and scores of others creating masterpieces in the medium. Some of the music was sufficiently inclusive of world, funk and other influences that it came to be called fusion, but the controversy never went away. For a time formulaic versions and the Marsalis contingency served to discredit the music and it nearly fell into eclipse. It was too powerful and open-ended to succumb and there has been continuance, resurgence and new life in the music in the past decade or so.

Enter on the scene one Rick Drumm and Fatty Necroses, and their first album Return from the Unknown (self-released). It's a fairly large band with Drumm on the drums, two guitarists, Fred Hamilton and Corey Christiansen, who also write the music, plus contrabass, piano, trumpet, sax and trombone.

Drumm has an interesting background. Besides his musical world he is in the business world (currently heading up D'Addario strings) and has an MBA. For all that our focus is on the album at hand. It's a good one with a varied palette of music that goes from balladry to fusion to metal to funky. The music is quite well put-together, the ensemble parts have a nice feel to them, the guitarists can tie some fire to their plectrums, the rest of the band can get some solos in there that are worth hearing and the program flows nicely from start to finish.

Now there is much more in the way of detail I could add, but what counts is the togetherness of the unit and their cohesive sound regardless of the stylistic variation. Drumm's drums are the glue that holds it together. There is so much music to be had here in the 63 minutes of the CD, good music, that I will leave off giving further description and just say that if you appreciate the full band sort of jazz-rock, this is one of the better efforts so far this year.

Bruce Arnold's "Heavy Mental" Guitar

We've been looking at a couple of albums by guitarist Bruce Arnold in the last several weeks. Here now is a third, Heavy Mental (Muse Eek 156).

It's a flat-out dash, a cranked guitar, fused power trio outing with a distant cousinship to Allan Holdsworth and Terje Rypdal's forays into this territory, and it's a good go of it to boot.

Bruce is joined by Andy Galore, bass, and Kirk Driscoll, drums for the thrust of fused rock with the sophisticated harmonies and melodic invention of jazz. The bass-drum team are right where they need to be, but it's pretty much Mr. Arnold's guitar that makes it all elevate to those extra level notches above just good. Bruce has shown us he can be accomplished in avant-avant and also avant-mainstream playing. Now he shows equal comfort with and facility in the more electric zone.

The first thing you notice on listening is Bruce's beautiful tone. It is highly electric but rich and velvety, almost silken, charged with sustain, made three-dimensional via resort to finger vibrato at certain points in the melody curve. His chording and note-conjuring are ahead of the pack and well executed, with chops to spare. Mention should also be made of Galore's solid bass ensemble work and his effective solo spots. Mr. Driscoll has a busy driving style that does not rest content with the backbeat stance; he's all over the place and rightfully so.

Bruce does the compositions here and they stay in a good place, without recourse to fusion cliche whatsoever.

It's a terrific outing that will please those who like the drive of rock with intelligent playing and arranging. Mr. Arnold should find plenty of eager converts to his brand of axe wielding with this disk. Give it a good listen and you could well be one of them!