DONNY MCCASLIN — Perpetual Motion (review)

DONNY MCCASLIN — Perpetual Motion album cover Album · 2010 · Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Ricochet
Recorded last year, but released this January, Perpetual Motion was for me the first sign that 2011 could be a remarkable year for jazz (long fulfilled prediction since). Right now, it's slipping a bit from my top, shrouded by more excentric albums, but I feel this could otherwise be a dandy listen for many. Anyone familiar with who's played alongside Dave Douglas, Gil Evans, Uri Caine or David Binney (the last two with "cameos" hereon) in the past decade should know about McCaslin. Besides, the dominant fervor on this album sound akin to Mike Stern's electric hits.

It may be hasty to insinuate after all (as I did earlier) that this album would be conventional; it's as lively and exciting as (a) nu-jazz can be these days. Patched furthermore: funk caprices, high or heated pitches that smooth into soul, ambient or electri-electro charges (the first track's kick, much in the vein of Elephant9) and a dangerous small dose of elevator jazz.

A first great half becomes even greater when McCaslin (or the whole bunch!) expresses itself more picaresque, with only bits of melody or with themes that can't be caught from the start ("Claire", "Energy Generation"). Likewise, I like it when Adam Benjamin comes only with light vapors of fusion - although, in the end, he goes for the harsh, wobbly Fender calibre, too. On "Firefly", the sax takes over the guitar's reflections (learned from Abercrombie) with matching sensibility, followed up by an equally insoluble and slightly caustic electronic infuse. When Caine ends with a solo ballad (slight imitiations of Corea or Hancock in it), something unrelated to anything before, you suddenly get the chill that all of the pieces were actually of a momentary nature, whether zealous or, though not as often, engulfing..
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