Label: Smoke Sessions Records, 2023
Personnel - Immanuel Wilkins: alto saxophone; Kurt Rosenwinkel: guitar; Julius Rodriguez: piano; Robert Hurst: bass; Joe Farnsworth: drums.
In a career spanning four decades, the selfless drummer Joe Farnsworth has been leaning on the conservative side of the jazz spectrum with excellent results, playing alongside pianists Cedar Walton and Harold Mabern, and saxophonists Benny Golson and George Coleman. For his third outing on Smoke Sessions label, In What Direction Are You Headed?, Farnsworth shows vision and innovative capacity by employing two outstanding Philadelphian soloists - saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. The group is rounded out by the up-and-coming pianist Julius Rodriguez, and a longtime collaborator, the bassist Robert Hurst.
This delicious eight-track jazz brew begins with two pieces by Rosenwinkel: “Terra Nova”, whose sax/guitar introductory section suggests a ballad before things diverge into an effortless bossa nova rhythm; and the modern classic “Filters”, whose striking, cyclonic theme inspires a creative improvisational feast taken with verve and rapture by Rosenwinkel and Wilkins. Rodriguez and Farnsworth also improvise with aplomb.
The album’s centerpiece is the Harold Mabern-penned title track which is meaningful in more than one sense. With focused bass and drums tied up all the way down, there’s this wonderful start-stop phrasing delineating the theme and incredible solos by the usual suspects. Rising to the top, Wilkins builds within a language whose vibrating currents make our bodies react, while Rosenwinkel tailors his synth-effect sound and approach with unbridled artistic command, thoroughly combining tradition and in/out expressionistic playing.
Wilkins’ previously unrecorded “Composition 4” is a smooth poem that, following a lyrical sax/guitar introduction, has the rhythm section kicking it into gear with crafty tempo and cymbal continuum. In turn, Rodriguez’s “Two Way Street”, culled from his debut album Let Sound Tell All (2022), and Farnsworth’s “Bobby No Bags”, dedicated to Hurst, are buoyant swingers made of expedite rhythm changes that everybody takes a bite.
Rosenwinkel brings another beautiful tune of his, “Safe Corners”, which, like “Terra Nova”, was included on his 2008 album The Remedy, and the session ends with a rendition of Donny Hathaway’s easy-listening soul hit “Someday We’ll All Be Free”, here reformulated with triple meter and further luminosity.
According to what we hear, Farnsworth’s new direction is taking him to exciting places. His current associates brought him intense connectedness and the freedom he seems to enjoy while truly committing to the music.
Favorite Tracks:
02 - Filters ► 03 - In What Direction Are You Headed? ► 08 - Someday We’ll All Be Free