1 post tagged “folk jazz”
Catching up on my music backlog today I discovered a definite keeper, Dawn, the newish album by twenty-member L.A. jazz collective Build An Ark. They seem to be channeling spiritual jazz and folk straight out of the 70s with real authority, probably because some of their members actually played it in the 70s. They successfully avoid the three main pitfalls of retro jazz (too smooth, too disco, too many 70s cliches) and vary the tempo without grinding to a halt on the slower pieces. I may even end up liking the slower ones better; they have an organic beauty that wells up as the songs progress, with rhythms implied rather than blatant. For this post I've chosen the aptly-titled "Track 4," an uptempo number that starts with a chant and slows down into an absolutely gorgeous coda:
With twenty members there should be a lot of related music to explore, which has me practically drooling. Know the feeling?
