Label: Sonic Camera Records, 2021
Personnel - Steve Cardenas: electric and acoustic guitar; Chico Pinheiro: electric and acoustic guitar; Ben Allison: acoustic and electric bass; Allan Mednard: drums, percussion.
First-rate bassist/composer Ben Allison consistently makes good records and he’s been doing it since the mid 90s with diverse ensembles (Medicine Wheel, Think Free, Herbie Nichols Project). For this new outing, the founder of the Jazz Composers Collective changed things up, venturing into new sounds inspired by MPB (Popular Brazilian Music) and Tropicalia, an artistic Brazilian movement that took place in the 60s. With those sounds in mind, he enlisted the reliable guitarists Steve Cardenas, a long-time collaborator, and the Brazilian Chico Pinheiro, a new associate that fits here like a glove. Rounding out the group is the drummer Allan Mednard, who had contributed to his previous recording, Layers of the City (Sonic Camera Records, 2017). They work their way through seven Allison originals and a reworking of Herbie Nichols’ “House Party Starting”, which, glimmering with its recognizable haunting melodicism, emerges here coated with a gracious bossanova feel.
“Safe Passage ” opens the album with catchy electric bass and the adroit sound of brushed skins and cymbals for a soft but steady pavement. On top of it, the guitarists control both harmony and melody with such clarity and such generosity, evoking the lyricism of Gilberto Gil and the easygoing fluidity of Os Mutantes.
The rhythmic magnetism keeps pulling us in, albeit from a different angle on “The Chase”, which recalls Edu Lobo yet with a refined jazzified sensibility. This number is marked by a solid electric bass solo and thrilling drumming, with Cardenas and Pinheiro combining their sounds to perfection. The latter’s improvisation on “Milton” - a celebration of the traditional folk trails and specific sonority of Milton Nascimento (the author of the iconic album Clube da Esquina and the noteworthy song “Miracle of the Fishes”) - is a reassuring wonder of well-chosen notes. This tune ends percussively luxuriant.
“Voyage of the Nautilus” also receives an outstanding percussion treatment by Mednard as it keeps grooving in 5/4 time thru a funkified pulse, whereas “Breakfast with Eric” speaks the blues idiom without sacrificing the album’s aesthetic.
Amidst the chaos and sorrow lived at the time he was working on these compositions, Allison came to the conclusion that he penned the music he needed - filled with beauty, optimism and tranquility. Moments Inside provides an awe-inspiring listening experience for everyone with an eclectic ear.
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Favorite Tracks:
01 - Safe Passage ► 02 - The Chase ► 04 - Voyage of the Nautilus