JACK DEJOHNETTE / RAVI COLTRANE / MATTHEW GARRISON - In Movement
ECM 478 1598
Jack DeJohnette: drums, electronic percussion, piano; Matthew Garrison: bass, electronics; Ravi Coltrane: tenor, soprano, sopranino saxophone
Recorded October 2015
Jack DeJohnette has always been a multi-dimensional musician. His interests over the years have encompassed everything from his often dual saxophone Special Edition group, duos with Gambian kora maestro Foday Musa Suso, and guitarist Bill Frisell, to healing music, and everything in between. One thing that is never in question in DeJohnette’s music is the consistent passion, and dedication to blazing paths less traveled. An important part of the drummer’s recorded legacy has been his association with ECM, having been on more recordings for the label than perhaps any other drummer. While this new release “In Movement” is his first studio album for them since “Oneness” (ECM, 1997) he released the fantastic “Trio Beyond” collaboration honoring Tony Williams with guitarist John Scofield and organist Larry Goldings in 2006, and most recently his rekindling of ties with AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) cohorts saxophonists Roscoe Mitchell, recent Pulitzer winner Henry Threadgill and pianist Muhal Richard Abrams captured at the 2013 Chicago Jazz Festival on the scintillating “Made in Chicago” (ECM, 2015).
“In Movement” is DeJohnette’s new trio with saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and bassist Matthew Garrison. Those names of course are connected with jazz royalty, John Coltrane, and his long time bassist, Jimmy Garrison. The trio represents a deep familial tie for the drummer as he knew Ravi Coltrane since he was a young boy, and Matthew Garrison, DeJohnette’s godson, stayed with him for several years as a teenager; the connection runs even deeper to the Coltrane and Garrison families. In 1965 DeJohnette had the opportunity to sit in with the John Coltrane quartet substituting for Elvin Jones. The music here is effervescent and purely about three players communicating musically in a way that demonstrates their tremendous comfort level as human beings. DeJohnette’s use of color is outstanding as gentle cymbal rolls set the rhythmically free tone of John Coltrane’s “Alabama”, which in today’s rather difficult times filled with social injustice here and abroad takes on a particularly poignant meaning. Ravi Coltrane’s statement of the melody on tenor, with his rich, full bodied tone, sets up an emotionally charged improvisation where the leader’s rubato drums answer the saxophone in the spaces between his notes. Garrison holds down the foundation for these free explorations to open the album, adding a touch of Hendrixian distortion to help heighten the impact. DeJohnette’s electronic percussion works in tandem with Garrison’s creative use of electronics to set up an atmospheric bed for Coltrane’s inspired soprano soloing featuring DeJohnette’s floating, eighth note cymbal stream behind him. The drummer loves groove , and his propulsive sixteenth note high hat work on “Two Jimmys” (dedicated to Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Garrison) and the deeply funky cover of Earth, Wind and Fire’s classic “Serpentine Fire” are prime examples of this aspect. DeJohnette’s signature displaced funk allow for Coltrane and Garrison to soar, and during Garrison’s bass solo, the drummer’s popping, rolling comments inserted to the already flexible groove are ear catching. DeJohnette plays his first love piano, on Miles Davis’ classic “Blue and Green” and on a reprise of his own “Soulful Ballad” from “Music We Are” (Kindred Rhythms/Golden Beams, 2009) and demonstrates through his spare, thoughtful playing that it has shaped his orchestrational approach to the drums. Just as he had done with last year’s return to ECM “Made in Chicago”, and work with luminaries like trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, the drummer also engages in his avant garde roots on “Rashied” with Ravi Coltrane on sopranino saxophone. The searing duo track channels the energy from the classic John Coltrane/Rashied Ali duos on “Interstellar Space” (Impulse!, 1967). Ravi Coltrane’s brief fanfare-like head sets off a thrilling, volatile collective improvisation, full of the pan-rhythmic concepts that influenced DeJohnette’s conception greatly.
“In Movement” is an album that showcases the collective brilliance of three players who have honed their craft as a band through a lengthy period of touring, leaving plenty of room for meaty, explorative improvisations with a set of tunes that showcases the strength of each individual adding to the collective whole. The album certainly is one of Jack DeJohnette’s strongest statements in the last decade in a career filled with so many milestones.
Reviewed by CJ Hearn
ECM 478 1598
Jack DeJohnette: drums, electronic percussion, piano; Matthew Garrison: bass, electronics; Ravi Coltrane: tenor, soprano, sopranino saxophone
Recorded October 2015
Jack DeJohnette has always been a multi-dimensional musician. His interests over the years have encompassed everything from his often dual saxophone Special Edition group, duos with Gambian kora maestro Foday Musa Suso, and guitarist Bill Frisell, to healing music, and everything in between. One thing that is never in question in DeJohnette’s music is the consistent passion, and dedication to blazing paths less traveled. An important part of the drummer’s recorded legacy has been his association with ECM, having been on more recordings for the label than perhaps any other drummer. While this new release “In Movement” is his first studio album for them since “Oneness” (ECM, 1997) he released the fantastic “Trio Beyond” collaboration honoring Tony Williams with guitarist John Scofield and organist Larry Goldings in 2006, and most recently his rekindling of ties with AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) cohorts saxophonists Roscoe Mitchell, recent Pulitzer winner Henry Threadgill and pianist Muhal Richard Abrams captured at the 2013 Chicago Jazz Festival on the scintillating “Made in Chicago” (ECM, 2015).
“In Movement” is DeJohnette’s new trio with saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and bassist Matthew Garrison. Those names of course are connected with jazz royalty, John Coltrane, and his long time bassist, Jimmy Garrison. The trio represents a deep familial tie for the drummer as he knew Ravi Coltrane since he was a young boy, and Matthew Garrison, DeJohnette’s godson, stayed with him for several years as a teenager; the connection runs even deeper to the Coltrane and Garrison families. In 1965 DeJohnette had the opportunity to sit in with the John Coltrane quartet substituting for Elvin Jones. The music here is effervescent and purely about three players communicating musically in a way that demonstrates their tremendous comfort level as human beings. DeJohnette’s use of color is outstanding as gentle cymbal rolls set the rhythmically free tone of John Coltrane’s “Alabama”, which in today’s rather difficult times filled with social injustice here and abroad takes on a particularly poignant meaning. Ravi Coltrane’s statement of the melody on tenor, with his rich, full bodied tone, sets up an emotionally charged improvisation where the leader’s rubato drums answer the saxophone in the spaces between his notes. Garrison holds down the foundation for these free explorations to open the album, adding a touch of Hendrixian distortion to help heighten the impact. DeJohnette’s electronic percussion works in tandem with Garrison’s creative use of electronics to set up an atmospheric bed for Coltrane’s inspired soprano soloing featuring DeJohnette’s floating, eighth note cymbal stream behind him. The drummer loves groove , and his propulsive sixteenth note high hat work on “Two Jimmys” (dedicated to Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Garrison) and the deeply funky cover of Earth, Wind and Fire’s classic “Serpentine Fire” are prime examples of this aspect. DeJohnette’s signature displaced funk allow for Coltrane and Garrison to soar, and during Garrison’s bass solo, the drummer’s popping, rolling comments inserted to the already flexible groove are ear catching. DeJohnette plays his first love piano, on Miles Davis’ classic “Blue and Green” and on a reprise of his own “Soulful Ballad” from “Music We Are” (Kindred Rhythms/Golden Beams, 2009) and demonstrates through his spare, thoughtful playing that it has shaped his orchestrational approach to the drums. Just as he had done with last year’s return to ECM “Made in Chicago”, and work with luminaries like trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, the drummer also engages in his avant garde roots on “Rashied” with Ravi Coltrane on sopranino saxophone. The searing duo track channels the energy from the classic John Coltrane/Rashied Ali duos on “Interstellar Space” (Impulse!, 1967). Ravi Coltrane’s brief fanfare-like head sets off a thrilling, volatile collective improvisation, full of the pan-rhythmic concepts that influenced DeJohnette’s conception greatly.
“In Movement” is an album that showcases the collective brilliance of three players who have honed their craft as a band through a lengthy period of touring, leaving plenty of room for meaty, explorative improvisations with a set of tunes that showcases the strength of each individual adding to the collective whole. The album certainly is one of Jack DeJohnette’s strongest statements in the last decade in a career filled with so many milestones.
Reviewed by CJ Hearn
