First impressions in jazz aren't very reliable. I spent the first ten minutes of my initial audition of Suit Up!, the new album by the Matt Kane Trio, wondering why another relatively young musician would choose to make an anachronistic organ trio album.
Hip details soon began to grab my attention. Not only is the trio of drummer Kane, organist Kyle Koehler and guitarist Dave Stryker extraordinarily tight, all three men contribute sly flourishes that give the recording a covert layer of depth.
"I wanted a response from the folks, wanted them to party and have fun and groove but at the same time I wanted to play music I loved with great players," Kane writes in a blog post about the making of Suit Up!.
The range of the album is revealed by its opening and closing tracks. Suit Up! begins with Pat Metheny's persuasive melody "John McKee" and ends with a funky rendition of Earth, Wind & Fire's "That's the Way of the World." The two most interesting tracks, however, are Ahmad Alaadeen's "Big Six" and "21st Century Ragg." As Chuck Haddix documents in the liner notes, Kane honed his chops in Kansas City with the McFadden Brothers, Ida McBeth and Alaadeen before relocating to New York.
Suit Up!'s most challenging selections, "Big Six" and "21st Century Ragg" allow Kane to reaffirm his Kansas City roots and remind listeners of Alaadeen's greatness.
(Original image by Plastic Sax.)
You say "anachronistic" like it's a bad thing ;)
ReplyDeleteI don't see it as a pejorative term. I think that forming a modern organ trio is an anachronism, i.e. out of chronological order. But yes, in this case it feels like a healthy anachronism :-)
ReplyDeleteTime is no longer linear anymore.. it's a retrovirus
ReplyDelete