Label: Mahakala Music , 2021

Personnel - Chad Fowler: alto sax; Marc Franklin: trumpet; Kelley Hurt: vocals; Christopher Parker: piano; William Parker: double bass; Brian Blade: drums.

The Bond marks the return of Dopolarians, a sextet of avant-gardists and free musical explorers composed of alto saxophonist Chad Fowler, trumpeter Marc Franklin (subbing for the tenor player Kidd Jordan), vocalist Kelley Hurt, pianist Christopher Parker, bassist William Parker and drummer Brian Blade (replacing the late Alvin Fielder). The ensemble remains faithful to the essence of improvisation, responding to particular situations with their musical intuition and ability to speak up through their respective instruments.

The title track is a 20-minute journey that mixes spiritual dimensions and southern blues roots right at the beginning. The occasion allows us to appreciate the rich harmonic progressions on the piano, which are followed by trumpet and saxophone expansions with a predilection for higher pitches. Parker, the bassist, bounces things up with an odd, hopping groove that provides a functional framework for Fowler’s silver-tongued improvisation. He is accompanied by Blade’s thunderous bombardment of highly sculptural drum sounds. The drummer, who is rarely seen in this avant-jazz context, is a great addition to the group, employing all his known sensitivity to deal with the volatile atmospheres. The bass solo lies on dreamy piano, also enjoying leisurely adornments from the horns and Hurt’s exploratory vocalise, which soon claims the attention while the other instruments surround it.

“The Emergence” kicks off as a densely webbed, frenzy romp with spiky horn peaks and rhythmic fragmentation. Then, it moves through a prolonged reflection that could be a bit of an endurance ride for the listeners, before returning to the dynamics that nimbly expand and contract, burning everything around.

The album closes with the stunning “The Release”, whose ethereal beauty relies on modal embodiment and spiritual enlightenment, recalling Pharaoh Sanders and Alice Coltrane in their unchained abandon.

Although not as strong as the Dopolarians’ 2019 debut (Garden Party), The Bond creates some frisson while leading us to an extraordinary finale.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - The Bond ► 03 - The Release

Label: Mahakala Music, 2019

Personnel - Chad Fowler: alto sax, saxello; Kidd Jordan: tenor sax; Kelley Hurt: vocals; Chris Parker: piano; William Parker: double bass; Alvin Fielder: drums.

The multi-generational avant-jazz sextet Dopolarians was born from the predominantly Southern spirit of its members, who decided to record Garden Party in New Orleans. The group’s first effort, comprising six modern tunes that don’t neglect elements of the past, shape into a consistent, well-conceptualized program where free improvisation and disciplined incursions integrate in an extremely gratifying manner.

The veteran tenor sax player Kidd Jordan forms a supercharged frontline with the young alto saxist Chad Fowler, with vocalist Kelley Hurt alternating between focused teamwork with the horn section and spontaneous explorations in specific sections. The harmonic assistance is given by emerging pianist Chris Parker, who finds extra rhythmic support in two colossal pillars, bassist William Parker (no relation with the pianist) and drummer Alvin Fielder. Unfortunately, Dopolarians's future releases will never sound the same without the latter, who has passed away in early 2019. His perceptive drumming is well alive here and the opening piece, “C Melody”, confirms this thought. There is an organic blues-based sax/piano polyphony in movement, configuring an accessible dialogue full of motifs and inspirations that go from Ayler to Ornette. Chris Parker contributes significantly to the rhythmic frame through unrestricted delineations that tend to expand rather than stabilize. This is an impromptu exercise credited to Fielder, Jordan, and the two Parkers.

“Dopolaria” is the first of three tunes composed by Fowler to appear, and comes described as a love song inspired by a fragment of a Puccini melody. The dulcet piano/bass inception, complemented with understated brushwork, gradually fades to give place to sax/voice commotions. Soon after that, you’ll notice a delightful avant melodicism flustered by the eeriness of anxious arco bass and agitated piano whirls hinged on the nimble chord changes.

“Father Dies, Son Dies” and “Guilty Happy” are also Fowler’s creations that explore the interesting timbral qualities of the group’s instrumentation. The former, tense and fascinatingly offbeat, carries a Steve Lacy-like vibe with steeply sloping unisons, cymbal effervescence, and a few harmonic volleys arousing just the right amount of ambiguity. It’s a composition about impermanence and the inevitability of death, where saxello outcries and a reactive piano work in their own way to build rising momentum. In turn, the riff-oriented “Guilty Happy” possesses a mix of free folk and Afro Latin vibes promoting its infectious propulsion and suggesting an exciting crossing between Gato Barbieri and David S. Ware. Expect a wide range of hooks, squeals, explosive dissonances, and occasional gruff executions from the saxophonists.

Hurt’s “Garden Party” exudes poetry in its musical fervency, ending as a complete settlement with Fielder holding everything with brushes in the background, whereas Chris Parker’s snappy “Impromptu” achieves a radiant complexion fabricated with a bendable bebop flair and polyrhythmic feel.

Promoting diversity of sound, Garden Party is a record of dynamic invention and grandiose free aesthetic.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Dopolaria ► 03 - Father Dies, Son Dies ► 05 - Guilty Happy