ORLANDO LE FLEMING & ROMANTIC FUNK - The Unfamiliar
Whirlwind Recordings: WR4763
Philip Dizack: trumpet; Will Vinson: alto saxophone; Sean Wayland: keyboards, Synths; Orlando Le Fleming: double bass, electric bass; Kush Abadey: drums; Nate Wood: drums
Recorded 10th and 11th January 2020 by John Davis at The Bukner
The opening track, “I’ll tell you what it is later”, takes a quotation from Miles Davis as its title and a musical quotation from Miles as its theme. Here Le Fleming’s bass skips around the borders of 70s funk and jazz-rock, bouncing off Abadey’s drums to create a sure-footed rhythmic groove for brass and keys to layer a many faceted tune. This is a sterling follow-up to 2017s ‘Orlando Fleming and Romantic Funk’. The press release of this earlier album positions the sound between ‘early-Jaco-era Weather Report and Herbie Hancock’ – not a bad place to be, but I think this misses the vibe of the set. This takes the music back to time when the bass created the pulse for the music, whether it was Miles Davis or Funkadelic, there is a heaviness to the groove that goes directly to the toes. While the bass licks are all glorious, the real depth of this set comes from the compositions themselves and the way that they build, a little like a suite, into a coherent whole. ‘The Myth of Progress’ (track 3), for instance, has trumpet, sax and keys swirling as if in a big band. I tend to find much of jazz-funk dull and repetitive in its predictability. But on this set, the emphasis is on the clean distinction between the funk of the rhythm section and the jazz of the soloists. The opener pushes trumpet to the fore, but the other tracks feature fine interplay between instruments and some compelling keyboard playing, especially on ‘Waynes’ (track 2). Throughout the set, Le Fleming shows a great ear for the catchy hook in his compositions while also leaving space for the scintillating solo and duo work of trumpet and sax. That this is a band in full flow is clear from the fact that the set was recorded ‘live’ in a couple of days (with, according to the liner notes, very few edits and overdubs).
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Whirlwind Recordings: WR4763
Philip Dizack: trumpet; Will Vinson: alto saxophone; Sean Wayland: keyboards, Synths; Orlando Le Fleming: double bass, electric bass; Kush Abadey: drums; Nate Wood: drums
Recorded 10th and 11th January 2020 by John Davis at The Bukner
The opening track, “I’ll tell you what it is later”, takes a quotation from Miles Davis as its title and a musical quotation from Miles as its theme. Here Le Fleming’s bass skips around the borders of 70s funk and jazz-rock, bouncing off Abadey’s drums to create a sure-footed rhythmic groove for brass and keys to layer a many faceted tune. This is a sterling follow-up to 2017s ‘Orlando Fleming and Romantic Funk’. The press release of this earlier album positions the sound between ‘early-Jaco-era Weather Report and Herbie Hancock’ – not a bad place to be, but I think this misses the vibe of the set. This takes the music back to time when the bass created the pulse for the music, whether it was Miles Davis or Funkadelic, there is a heaviness to the groove that goes directly to the toes. While the bass licks are all glorious, the real depth of this set comes from the compositions themselves and the way that they build, a little like a suite, into a coherent whole. ‘The Myth of Progress’ (track 3), for instance, has trumpet, sax and keys swirling as if in a big band. I tend to find much of jazz-funk dull and repetitive in its predictability. But on this set, the emphasis is on the clean distinction between the funk of the rhythm section and the jazz of the soloists. The opener pushes trumpet to the fore, but the other tracks feature fine interplay between instruments and some compelling keyboard playing, especially on ‘Waynes’ (track 2). Throughout the set, Le Fleming shows a great ear for the catchy hook in his compositions while also leaving space for the scintillating solo and duo work of trumpet and sax. That this is a band in full flow is clear from the fact that the set was recorded ‘live’ in a couple of days (with, according to the liner notes, very few edits and overdubs).
Reviewed by Chris Baber
