A reunion of sorts for several
Herbie Hancock
band alumni of the 1970s,
Mike Clark
's 2023 album
Kosen Rufu
finds the drummer joining forces with trumpeter
Eddie Henderson
and percussionist
Bill Summers
. All three musicians played key roles in
Hancock
's career at different times. An acolyte of
Miles Davis
,
Henderson
was a member of
's landmark avant-garde fusion
Mwandishi
sextet, the group that preceded
the Headhunters
. Similarly,
Clark
replaced founding
Headhunters
drummer
Harvey Mason
in 1974, just after the release of the group's influential self-titled debut -- a period that also featured
Summers
. Throughout the rest of the decade,
would bring members of
together for his own projects, with
appearing on 1976's
Heritage
and
on 1978's
Mahal
. All of which is to say, there is a deep shared history between all three players, rooted in the exploratory jazz that
championed. Joining them are several like-minded players who bring their own varied experiences to the proceedings, including legendary West Coast bassist
Henry "The Skipper" Franklin
, keyboardist
Wayne Horvitz
, and tenor saxophonist
Skerik
. While there are certainly moments that evoke
' funk-inflected style, the album is more akin to the edgy, acoustic, post-bop and free jazz of
Ornette Coleman
Eric Dolphy
, the latter of whose "Hat and Beard"
and company tackle here with puckish, atonal aplomb. More evocative of
' sound is "MC's Thing," a woozy, loping number where
share bluesy asides. There's also
Horvitz
' dreamy organ number "One for Mganga," where
sprinkles chimes, bells, and other sundry percussion against
Franklin
's clipped go-go groove while
squeal and coo into the harmonic atmosphere. We also get
's "Olivia," a hard-swinging number in the tradition of
' late-'60s quintet which is marked by moments of tonally open-ended, paint-spattered intensity from
. When
, and
first worked with
they were all in their twenties and early thirties, young mavericks ready to explore the edges of the jazz universe. On
, they are veterans, elder statesmen of the fusion age, yet they sound as inspired and ready to jump into the jazz unknown as ever. ~ Matt Collar