Not all Blue Note records sound like the Blue Note sound in your head. This one does but not like pastiche. It’s just the years, and movement of the music that have become the new ingredients.
Part of the Revive partnership Blue Note has begun, a stirring very woody bass figure at the beginning on ‘The Way (Truth & Life)’ the first thing you hear, and then that arranged, sun-dazed horn sound, distant yet of the now, horns blending like the way Lee Morgan and Joe Henderson fused, and decorated by unmistakable lit-up Glasper chords leading to a salty chromatic run from the pianist.
Drummer Otis Brown III first surfaced with Joe Lovano’s Us5, the New Jersey-born former Delaware State student some time earlier persuaded by the late Donald Byrd to play music in New York. Brown is quality like a latterday Freddie Waits (Time For Tyner, Mustang etc), and then there’s new input from daisy age hip-hop, gospel, and soul Brown and the band have fed in.
The Experiment bassist Derrick Hodge produced The Thought of You (***1/2) and the Glasper family input is strong here not just because the pianist plays on the record but also because singer Bilal features on the first part of the title track. There are three parts of the suite in all here. Imaginative jazz singer Gretchen Parlato features on ‘You’re Still the One’, all the material on the 11 tracks either written by the drummer or by members of the band. The Unity Group’s Ben Williams is on bass, Keyon Harrold (who has played with Glasper in his own band and with R&B star Maxwell), trumpet, Shedrick Mitchell, organ, and Nir Felder, guitar.
There’s spoken word, concerning the subjectivity of truth, on the first interlude, while ‘Stages of Thought’ is a masterclass for drummers (check the perfect press roll when Brown comes in), the drummer’s technical command very impressive. Spoken word against solo bass and then tender Glasper piano on ‘The Two Become One (For Paula)’ with sampled marriage ceremony spoken word text, a fine feature by saxophonist John Ellis comes out of the blue and it’s true that the album is full of surprises. Even after a number of listens you’ll find new things here. Brown syncopates catchily off the beat with snare and bass to introduce Parlato on ‘You’re Still the One’ (a variation of the Shania Twain / Mutt Lange song) Glasper’s piano line beautiful, and Parlato reinvents the vocal line very creatively.
There’s a Wayne Shorter-like beginning in the saxophone part in the beginning of the second part of The Thought of You suite, and this is where the album really delves deepest with rubato bass, Brown gradually pumping up the volume, and the pace.
There are several points of entry on The Thought of You: Glasper’s sublime touches, a rhythm masterclass from the leader, and Williams once more showing his ingenuity. The Parlato vocal on the Shania song and gospel singer Nikki Ross’ sense of letting-go communicated strongly in ‘I Am Your Song’ are some of the highlights, as is the boom-boom-shake-the-room quality of Brown on ‘Interlude II’. The autumn is definitely beginning to shape up. Released in the UK/Ireland on 22 September. Listen to the second track, above. • Check out Otis Brown III on Somi's recent album The Lagos Music Salon