Label: Self released, 2020
Personnel - Dave Bryant: keys; Charnett Moffett: electric bass; Gregg Bendian: drums, percussion.
With one foot in the fusion genre and the other in the harmolodic approach of free-jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman, Boston-based keyboardist Dave Bryant releases Night Visitors, a trio effort where he is joined by bassist Charnett Moffett and drummer Gregg Bendian.
Even though the steadfast “Lime Pickle” has resulted from an exercise for Bryant’s students, the way its rhythmic complexity and melodic abandon relate makes us conclude that an experienced hand is required.
Bryant, who was a late member of Ornette’s Prime Time ensemble, pays tribute to his post-graduate mentor by evoking him on several pieces. The saxophonist’s “Dee Dee”, which was first recorded in 1966 with a trio that included Charnett’s father, Charles Moffett, appears as the sole cover on the album, acquiring the form of an expressionist organ-driven piece shaped with genuine swinging excitement. On the other hand, “The Night Flock” mixes Ornette and Monk’s moods, allowing the trio to interact and stretch farther with rhythmic elasticity.
Fuzzier and heavier in sound, “In Transit” alludes to electronic music through synth fireworks, unstoppable bass runs and frantic drumming, being completely disconnected from the organized “Skywritten”, the piece that immediately follows. Here, the bass is bowed at the tune’s extremities, taking the shape of a walking pizzicato groove in the middle section in order to support the effortless eloquence of the pianist. A stringent articulation contours his phrasing.
Sounding like a fun exercise, “Chihuahua Pearl” lives from the humor and flippancy between the funky bass and the high-energy keyboard, with the drums adhering to the provocation with low-key drama. Much more exciting is the blues-tinged “Scorpio 80”, written for the 80th birthday of comic books artist Jim Steranko. It was through the latter that Bryant met Bendian.
The album closes with the three-part suite “Three Night Visitors”, which offers that kind of abstract pleasures that I would be happy to find in greater extent. You’ll find glockenspiel enlaced with curious percussive elements, ritualistic proceedings and nice sound effects as parts of a cadenced dance, and a spontaneous three-way conversation between glockenspiel, piano and the bass, which interchanges pizzicato and arco techniques.
Although this record only partially worked for me, loyal fusion devotees may well go for it.
Grade B-
Favorite Tracks:
07 - The Night Flock ► 09 - Three Night Visitors I ► 10 - Three Night Visitors II