As a drummer,
Questlove
holds a distinctive place in the musical landscape. A Grammy-winning performer, his work with
the Roots
, both on and off The Tonight Show and with artists across the pop, jazz, R&B, and hip-hop spectrum have garnered broad respect. All of which makes 2024's
Plumb
, his collaboration with iconic free jazz tenor saxophonist/bass clarinetist
David Murray
and longtime
Roots
associate keyboardist
Ray Angry
, all the more a refreshing surprise.
is no stranger to jazz, let alone genre-bending projects; evidenced by his work on albums like 2001's
The Philadelphia Experiment
with bassist
Christian McBride
and organist
Uri Caine
, 2005's
Momentum
with saxophonist
Joshua Redman
, and 2013's
Take Me to the Land of Hell
with
Yoko Ono
. Stil, his main thing is in-the-pocket hip-hop and neo-soul, the latter a vibe he brought to both
and his work with artists like
D'Angelo
,
Erykah Badu
, and
Mark Ronson
. He brings all his experiences to bear on
, a sonically textured instrumental album that pleasingly comes off like one of the weirdest mood music LPs ever made. Many of the cuts have groove-based quality, like "Pink Noise," where
kicks into an off-kilter funk-swing beat against which
Murray
soars and skronks while
Angry
digs into a buzzy, vintage-sounding synth. Worlds collide on
, as on "5 Minute Joint," which evokes an impossible collaboration between reedist
Eric Dolphy
Prince
Clyde Stubblefield
. Elsewhere, they sink into the avant bossa nova lounge number "Intro to Ninno/Ninno," and conjure a woozy, astral jazz sensuality on "Brown Doves." There are also unaccompanied solo tracks, including
's bluesy, bass clarinet number "False Dawn" and
's "Give the drummer Some"-style "Love."
is perhaps the least well-known of the trio, so his contributions here are fascinating, invoking gospel, Krautrock, and, as on his solo track "Pleiades," spacy fusion in the '70s
Herbie Hancock
tradition. A crazy mood music album indeed,
will groove you into far-out states of musical bliss. ~ Matt Collar