Adam Lane Quartet, Oh Freedom

The Adam Lane Quartet, as I alluded to in the review of the first disk several weeks ago (type "Lane" in the search box above for that), recorded not one but two sets of traditional roots songs in 2009. The first, originally intended as a demo, came out on Cadence Jazz, and the second, Oh Freedom (CIMP 392), I take on today. This one has the full dynamic sonarity typical of Cadence-CIMP productions. In fact it is an especially good one for that, with climaxes in dynamics well defined by the uncompressed acoustics.

It is the same great band, with Adam on bass, Avram Fefer on tenor, the late Roy Campbell on trumpet and flugel and Vijay Anderson on drums. As with the first, this is not Lane going traditional as much as it is his respectful nod to the roots, the foundations of jazz. The song are arranged well to frame the melodies/structures in a way that enables the quartet to blow freely and modernly. It certainly comes off exceptionally well. There is no feeling of cut and paste here; the songs naturally lend themselves to Adam's treatment and the solos are of a piece with the tonality of the songs.

No matter what tune, from the folk rooted "This Train", to the spiritual "Go Down Moses" or the haunting ballad "Wayfaring Stranger", everything works toward a measured free blowing session. With players of this caliber of course that is what gives it two-dimensions-in-one.

Once again our recent loss of trumpet great Roy Campbell makes these sessions especially poignant, as by definition they become some of his last sessions. He sounds great. Avram Fefer does too. Adam as you expect has a presence in his ensemble and solo roles that remind you what a monumental bassist he is. Vijay Anderson makes a virtually ideal teammate too, swinging, fired-up and subtle as needed.

There's no flagging from cut to cut, so the 70-minutes of the full program goes by quickly and happily.

Of course a parallel of these two albums with the classic Mingus Blues and Roots comes to mind. The similarity lies mostly in the presence of those roots and the gesture of recognition, since Mingus adapted his own music to the roots idea. There have been others too. But none of them have quite the chemistry of modern blowing and root tunes the way these Adam Lane sets do. The blowing is great and attuned to the tunes in a special way. It's a particular pleasure to hear this one as I surely will many times before I head, I hope, for those golden gates!

Adam Lane's Blue Spirit Band

Adam Lane isn't only a superb bassist. That should be enough. But he is also a leader of real strength. You get that today with his album Adam Lane's Blue Spirit Band (Cadence Jazz 1231) which was waxed in 2009 but released last year. The mood is elated, exuberent, and the repertoire is the roots, blues, spirituals, folk songs. That doesn't mean he's "gone traditional" any more than the Art Ensemble did on Message to Our Folks. It means that respect for the past combines with what playing cutting-edge jazz is to these artists.

When I first listened to this one and then put it in sequence for later listens and review, Roy Campbell was still with us and we had no idea, no warning that he was going to leave us. But he did, suddenly, shockingly, gone. But here he is on this record, blazing fire, sounding excellent, a trumpet at the top of today, now a memory. So RIP Roy Campbell. This is as good a place as any to hear his last flowering.

And then the rest of the band is at the top, too. Avram Fefer on tenor, volcanic and impassioned. Vijay Anderson turns in a very together performance on the drums, as you can count on. Adam plays bass like you know he can. And the arrangements turn these old hoary classics into the now of today.

"House of the Rising Sun"? Yeah, and "Peace Like A River", "Old Time Religion" and a bunch of others, done with all the heat and tensile strength of the music today. There's another release on CIMP I'll be covering shortly. But get this one; pay respects to Roy Campbell but do the same for all of these artists. Someday we'll all be gone and we need to appreciate the art while we--and they--are here. You'll be getting one hell of a nice recording too!

Adam Lane Trio, Absolute Horizon

Adam Lane has in the last several decades thrived as one of the very brightest stars on acoustic bass, a jazz composer-arranger of unique personality and poise, and a band leader of the highest rank.

A new CD of him in a bare-bones trio setting doing completely improvised music, Absolute Horizon (No Business NBCD 61), gives us a slightly different, but none the less welcome perspective. Here we have three excellent players--Adam, Darius Jones on alto sax and Vijay Anderson on drums--putting aside arranged compositions and going straight at it.

And what you might expect is what you get--a totally free-wheeling ride through the fertile, musically inventive collective imaginations of a trio of master avant jazzmen.

It all clicks. There are seven contrasting pieces with a generous playing time so you can imbibe a good long set of it all.

There is of course lots of Adam Lane's bass playing to dig here, arco or pizz, ensemble and solo. But then Darius and Vijay are primed and there are fully "actionable" sequences to get you off your mental seat and charge straight on through the music. ("Actionable" comes out of me almost involuntarily. It's a word I keep coming across in the many job descriptions I go through online every day in search of a JOB, you'll understand? It means that it invites or impells you to do something, in this case listen and dig.)

Some of this is flat-out, killer energy freedom, some of it is in a finessed, interactively subtle mood, some of it swings like hell, in time. It all swings in a wide sense, in or out of time. It shows you how some of the best can just let go and get a radically varied program of exciting new improvisations that showcase each as individuals yet get all kinds of group sounds and dynamics going. In fact this is something an avant jazz novice should hear if he or she needs to understand the importance of collective invention, of listening and proceeding in a totally free small group setting.

I have a couple more Adam Lane disks coming, so stay tuned. Meanwhile get a hold of this one!