Jazz Is Dead, the collaborative of Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, who are now well into their second series of fusing hip hop grooves with jazz, analog-style, depart slightly from their mission statement on this release. The two have primarily been re-introducing legends from the ‘70s – Roy Ayers, Gary Bartz, Doug Carn, Jean Carne, Brian Jackson, and others but now they are extending their welcome to an emerging young collective, the L.A.-based nine-piece Katalyst.
In one regard this is not a total surprise, however. Katalyst’s band leader and drummer, Greg Paul, was aboard for the releases with Roy Ayers and Gary Bartz, so the connection has been in place for awhile now. Consider Katlayst, formed, in 2014, a collective of contemporary producers, composers, and session musicians to be an even younger vanguard of L.A. musicians akin to the West Coast Get Down. Muhammad says, “Where they are now is where Earth, Wind & Fire was before they named themselves Earth, Wind & Fire, or even early Headhunters. They are of that ilk and watching those guys to me is the equivalent of watching a young Max Roach or a young Herbie Hancock, but they are not that. They are Katalyst, they are themselves.”
Katalyst, besides Paul, are pianists Brandon Cordoba and Brian Hargrove (brother of the late Roy Hargrove), saxophonists David Otis and Corbin Jones, trombonist Jonah Levine, trumpeter Emile Martinez, percussionist Ahmad Dubose, and bassist Marlon Spears. As stated, they are all composers and in one sense the album reads as one continuous track with seamless transitions between songs, through different tones and moods, and a true melding of hip-hop, neo-soul, dance music, and jazz. In other words, a succinct statement of today’s Black music with a few cosmic flairs a la Lonnie Liston Smith and Norman Connors.
The opener, “Avenues,” rolls in easily with a hip hop beat and the Otis on alto, playing spiritually, invoking just a tad of Pharaoh Sanders. “Daybreak” features only six musicians and one of the only JID tracks this writer recalls without Younge or Muhammad playing. It just floats and leaves the listener suspended, which is rather impressive considering no synths are involved – just Hargrove on Rhodes and Spears on the electric bass while the other four are acoustic. “Corridors,” with a host of percussionists and plenty of electronics has the group engaged in astral traveling as does the closer, “Reflections,” the former with danceable grooves fashioned by Paul and Dubose while the undulating grooves of the latter, take us on an uplifting journey to outer realms, again with a deft mix of percussion, keys, and horns that weighs heavier acoustically.
“Summer Solstice” emits a breezy beach vibe, a feature for Levine and Martinez, surfing the bed of twin keyboards – acoustic and Rhodes along with Younge on his monophonic synth and electric guitars. The celebratory “Juneteenth” is the standout track, again with a host of percussion creating urgency and the three-horn attack that signals that overdue justice has finally arrived. “Dogon Cypher” is tighter, more precise and a “bigger” sound involving four horns, with Jones joining on baritone sax. This one, as much as any, may remind of Terrace Martin and crew in the West Coast Get Down as Hargrove’s acoustic piano builds drama, soon to be awash in a bevy of synths, horns, and the funky undercurrent of clavinets.
Whether this kind of direction, latching on to emerging acts, signals a change in formula, we’ll have to see, but it works as well and arguably even better than many of the other JID releases. It’s a relaxing, comfortable, and digestible 35-minute listen.
