The first-ever solo album from longtime drummer Gregory Hutchinson is a master class in combining his preferred genres of jazz, hip-hop, funk, R&B, and Neo-soul. Da Bang is 15 songs that flowed out of Hutchinson as he invited a host of collaborators in to help tell his tales, that were birthed out of personal heartache, trials and tribulations, and an ever-changing world.
The long-playing album opens with “Straight From The Heart” as Hutchinson declares that all of these tunes come directly from that title. The track uses skittering drums and unique percussion stutters as vocals from Leona Berlin & Karriem Riggin help out on the personal statement track. Hutchinson makes sure that his drums are sonically the center of attention throughout Da Bang, but the music always supports the percussion as the vocals float on top.
Songs fall into their genres, “What’s Best For Us” is sweet, jazzy-tinged, neo-soul with vocals from PJ while “Last Time We Gonna Polite” featuring Christian Scott pushes directly into hip-hop, but the album works best when the genres bang into each other creating unique statements.
That combination happens on “Angels Around” with Tim Scott as electro keys, stand-up bass, big beats, and guitar solos mix everything up. “My Turn Now” featuring Kameron Corvet and “When They’re Gone” featuring Samora both feel like P-Funk fever dreams, with electro rocky funk pumped up loud, while “Losing You” brings back Berlin on vocals around skittering beats and strong piano work and “New Dawn” has hard rhythm support gorgeous falsetto neo-soul with Liselotte Östblom onboard.
“Blow My Mind/Let’s Take It Back” Feat. Sy Smith & Javier Starks may just be the best of the bunch combining all of Hutchinson’s work as hip-hop energy propels jazzy musicianship around soulful vocals and a killer groove.
Not everything is as successful, the experimental-tinged “Crazy Games” is interesting with the percussion focused on crashing and distortion, but it goes on too long without major improvements, also the recurring skits could be trimmed for a better flow, but when Hutchinson and friends are in the zone, such as on the free jazz-influenced closer “Fly Away”, that brings Nicholas Payton onboard, everything sounds just grand.
A music lifer who has worked with everyone from Common to Harry Connick Jr., Gregory Hutchinson’s debut solo album Da Bang is delivered with purpose and passion, proving it is never too late to deliver your manifesto.
