Night Dreamer Direct-to-Disc Sessions in Bloomington, MN

In the aftermath of
Maisha
's successful
Brownswood
debut
There Is a Place
, label boss
Gilles Peterson
selected them to back American alto legend
Gary Bartz
's headline appearance at the inaugural We Out Here Festival in 2019. The gig went off so well that
Bartz
took them on tour, and to play a We Out Here gig at London's Royal Albert Hall during the EFG London Jazz Festival. During the European tour they spent two days at Night Dreamer studios where they committed this session to tape.
's personnel changed after their album:
Nubya Garcia
left (temporarily) to attend to her own band's projects. Session trumpeter
Axel Kaner-Lidstrom
became a full-time member, while original keyboardist
Amane Suganami
was replaced by
Al MacSween
and percussionist
Tim Doyle
took
Yahael Camara-Onono
's spot.
These tracks are kinetic exercises in musical joy. The material includes three original tunes developed during the tour, plus re-worked versions of two
tunes from the '70s: "Uhuru Sasa" and "Doctor Follows Dance." Hard-grooving jazz-funk is the M.O. achieved via monstrous vamps, fingerpopping melodies, and interlocking rhythms. The killer interplay between the massively funky drum kit and percussion that introduce "Harlem to Haarlem" lets frontline horns work off rising star
Shirley Tetteh
's chunky guitar.
Twm Dylan
's roiling bass and fretless bass, and
MacSween
's Rhodes and organ vamps offer an indestructible frame for in-the- cut solos by alto sax and trumpet. "The Stank" is a dancefloor earworm. Aesthetically, this single recalls
Herbie Hancock
's themes from
Fat Albert Rotunda
, but is more intricate.
's phrasing and soloing register his long-established trademark even as he outlines the rhythm section's tough play. The knotty head comes directly from hard bop while the dirty funk recalls
the Meters
.
Tetteh
's guitar break matches the saxophonist's solo in imagination and taste. Hinge track "Leta's Dance" commences as a spacy, summery ballad, but morphs first into a steamy samba before shapeshifting again into a loping spiritual homage to
Pharoah Sanders
' "The Creator Has a Master Plan."
's compelling bass leads both "Uhuru Sasa" and "Dr Follows Dance."
Jake Long
doles out layers of molten breaks in both without sacrificing the beat.
's modal soloing meets
's punchy chords and white-hot solo while
's dirty comping creates an expansive yet ever-soulful collision of harmony and rhythm. Cut live to disc without the possibility for edits or overdubs, mistakes get made, but none get in the way. Make no assumptions, though:
Night Dreamer
is not a free-for-all jam; the music and charts here may be uncomplicated but are also tightly arranged and sophisticated -- everything is in its proper place, including the grit and grease -- placed in service to the almighty groove, with no room for overplaying or peacocking. Issued in time for
's 80th birthday, this set is a zenith for 21st century jazz-funk. ~ Thom Jurek