Label: Org Music, 2023
Personnel - Ras Moshe: tenor saxophone, flute; Charles Burnham: violin; On Davis: guitar; Hilliard Greene: bass; Luke Stewart: bass; William Hooker: drums.
William Hooker, a drummer of immense power and drive, provides a cliché-free experience with his latest album, Flesh and Bones, featuring a synergistic new musical unit of New York-based vanguardists and improvisers. The group, dedicated to creating freely, includes violinist Charles Burnham, woodwindsman Ras Moshe, guitarist On Davis, and two bassists of different generations yet equal facility and invention: Luke Stewart and Hilliard Greene.
Aiming at addressing social issues of our times, the album, a reaction to how Black People are being treated in America, opens with “Flames”, an exaltation made of flute, percussive clapping, somber bowed bass, mantric guitar tantrum, and a wah-inflected violin whose presence takes the group places it might not otherwise have reached. The piece seamlessly transitions into “My Blood”, where a burnished saxophone soars over fractal bass work and stimulating drums. Tearful violin sounds pair up with uncanny ascendant bass glissandi after an energy-loaded passage roughed up by free expressionism.
If Moshe introduces “Sewing the Seeds” with poised tenor, later infusing a magnanimous force into the piece alongside Hooker’s powerful drumming, then “True Dat” heats up with Davis’ hot guitar strings responding to the bandleader’s incentives, both vocal and percussive. The pair is later joined by Burnham, who creates an unexpected undercurrent through breezy folksy balladry.
Both “Reveal a Truth” and “The Soul of Fire” are standouts. The former is set on motion by Burnham, shaping up as a Western dance with swinging bass accompaniment and, eventually, a fine ride cymbal-driven flux. The latter brings muted guitar scratches à-la Jimi Hendrix, flute extroversion, electric bass curvatures of grandiose melodicism, and awesome off-centered accents.
At 77, and boasting a nearly five-decade career, Hooker is as thunderous and indefatigable as when he started.
Favorite Tracks:
02 - My Blood ► 07 - Reveal a Truth ► 11 - The Soul of Fire