Richard Bona Munia: The Tale [Verve]
The singular West African bassist continues to mine the vein of his two previous discs by effortlessly blending melodic Afro-pop/folk tales (sung by
Bona in his native Douala language) with streaks of jazz and bass brilliance. Vocal tracks such as “Kalabancoro” (with guest singer Salif Keita), “Sona Mama,” and “Balemba Na Bwemba” all ride Bona’s percussive bass subtleties, the latter erupting in a searing sing-and-play solo at the 3:00 mark. Bona’s trademark haunting ballads include “Dina Lam,” which boasts his potent chordal work on a Zon piccolo bass, and “Muto Bye Bye,” with his fingerstyle acoustic guitar and Atelier Z fretless accompaniment. Richard also sings in French on the samba “Bona Petit.”
On the instrumental side, the Miles-dedicated jazz waltz “Painting a Wish” features saxophonist Kenny Garrett and an intense, “Aja”-like drum solo by Vinnie Colaiuta. And closing the disc is Richard’s first “Bona-fide” bass anthem, the bouyant, Marcus Miller-esque “Playground,” which he hard-plucks on his Fodera 5-string. Bona keeps adding to his impressive catalogue. —Chris Jisi
Barbecue Pit SALTY THE POCKETKNIFE [Sonance]
The big problem with actors-turned-musicians is that their bands get much further than they should, based on novelty or publicity rather than the strength of their musical achievement. Take Salty The Pocketknife, for example, a proggy modern-rock quartet whose publicists prominently tout
Dustin Diamond—Screech from
Saved By The Bell—on bass. (Hey, it made me listen.) While the grinding, angular songs are certainly not trite or formulaic, they feature the unlistenably bad vocals of Rosebud, who himself sounds like a screeching gnome leaping around in someone’s drug-induced nightmare. Diamond capably holds down the odd time signatures, though he rarely ventures outside the mind-numbingly repetitive guitar riffs. You might listen to it once for laughs, but you won’t listen twice. —Bill Leigh
A Classic Revisited Chick Corea
Now He Sings, Now He Sobs [Blue Note]
This 1968 session documents the first meeting of Chick, bassist
Miroslav Vitous, and drummer Roy Haynes. They played a mixture of Corea originals, expanded standards, and free improvisation, with results so remarkable that it confounds the mind to think they never played together again until the 1981 reunion CD
The Trio [ECM]. In the interim 13 years, Corea went on to work with Miles Davis and lead many groundbreaking groups of his own, Vitous became a founding member of Weather Report as well as recording as a leader, and Haynes led his own bands as well as drummed on many star-studded record dates. However, while they were busy doing other things,
Now He Sings ... had quietly revolutionized the concept of the modern jazz piano trio.
While Bill Evans had opened a door with his signature trio, featuring bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian, Corea’s trio stepped through that door and took a different path. Chick’s modernized harmonic conception brought his writing and improvisations to a level that hadn’t yet been realized by other groups. While the trio interaction is less conversational than the Evans unit, there is still a strong sense of propulsion and swing from the rhythm section and the stylistic emergence of contained wildness. Vitous was the perfect choice for this date; his outstanding technical abilities, organic tone, and free sensibility place him on a short list of players who could step up to the plate in 1968. He accompanies dynamically, skillfully handles the written passages, and solos boldly—standing at the precipice where form ends and freedom starts. Roy Haynes is a revelation—a drummer who played with Lester Young and Charlie Parker in the late ’40s, he was still honing the cutting edge in the late ’60s. Haynes’s open flow of time allows maximum room for interpretation, but his groove is deeply rooted. The compositions “Matrix,” “Steps (What Was),” “Windows,” and the title track have gone on to become standards of the modern jazz era, and the perfomances here set a new standard for acoustic trio jazz.
More than a historically significant recording, this music stands up to anything recorded in the last 35 years. If you thought Chick was doing something new when he recorded his “akoustic” band, go back to the vaults and check out the landmark recording that forged the template. —Ed Friedland