David Bindman / Art Hirahara / Wes Brown / Royal Hartigan

Concise, coordinated and creative, Blood Drum Spirit, the quartet led by percussionist royal hartigan has been a constant presence on the scene for at least a couple of decades with this double-CD set marking a milestone band trip to Africa. During the 21-tracks, the group – flutist/saxophonist David Bindman, bassist Wes Brown and pianist Art Hirahara – express themselves with an admixture of classic Jazz tunes, free improvisations and exhibitions of distinctive African rhythms. All four, who each had a musical relationship with the late composer/political polemicist Fred Ho, are most effective when melding these textural strands into a sonic whole.

Although the band creates inventive versions of such classics as “Hi-Fly”, “Freedom Jazz Dance”, “Naima” and the venerable “St. Louis Blues”, its interpretations are less memorable than the original compositions. That’s because in personnel and orientation, these standard performances end up resembling a 21st Century variant of the classic John Coltrane quartet. While hartigan’s inventive polyrhythms and kit extensions are by definition in a more diverse space than Elvin Jones’ straightforward pulses. Hirahara’s program more flowery than McCoy Tyner-like and conversely Brown’s upfront throbs mix Jimmy Garrison-like subtleness with overt funkiness. The tenor or soprano saxophone playing of Bindman suffers the most in this context since he – like many other saxophonists since 1967 – is in the position of a novelist trying to write an original hard-boiled tale in a field dominated by Hammet and Chandler. Of the group “Naima” probably comes across best since even in this enervating version, since hartigan’s conga drum-like pops are blended with Africanized rhythmic twists alongside Brown’s solid pulse. Culminating in the magisterial sweep of reed double tonguing and staccato key clips from the pianist, the piece reaches a dramatic highpoint, cemented by a coda of bass thumps.

Although the spectre of post-Coltrane improvisation is as pervasive here as the West African spirits expected from Vodun, Akan and Hausa animism native to the region, it’s this schism and/or connection between North American and West African concepts which create the program’s most notable sounds. For instance “James and Hazel” has an exquisite double ruff introduction with the theme set up with cymbal clacks alone. Joined by a Brown’s steady pulse and Hirahara’s subtle patterning, the narrative assumes its full shape via Bindman’s unspooling sprawls, snorts and unexpected smoothness, somehow referencing modern Jazz, ancient Africa and “Tender is the Night”. Unexpected intimations of “Danny Boy” are present during the saxophonist’s playing on “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, with the African American anthem initially coming across as mellow, modulated and almost romantic, until a final section where the tempo picks up so that its swinging undercurrent is exposed.

Most impressively, the extended “Circle of Creation/Adzohu Suite” is the album’s most fully realized combination of West African and Jazz concepts. Vibrated at the top with a combination of mercurial multiphonics by composer Bindman, buoyed by fat string plucks and clatter cymbals, the exposition wriggles upwards through the saxophonist’s coloratura split tones as the underlying rhythm stays the same. Harmonizing the resulting tension, hartigan’s nerve beats and Hirahara’s keyboard swirls move the narrative into its final stop-time section culminating in a slurred reed reprise.

Of course much of the activity and significance on the two discs come from the percussion prestidigitation hartigan brings to the tracks. Although there are sequences where he dedicates solos to track how he adapts distinctive African rhythms to an improvised context, even more instructive are sequences where this is done in partnership with the others. In “Donno Ntoaso” for instance he slides a traditional Asante beat into a track otherwise remarkable for bluesy piano stretches and stuttering bent notes from the saxophonist, while Bindman’s pinched up-and-down vibrations, bowed bass lines and echoing piano soundboard glissandi lock in with double timed drumming and cymbal clashes on “The Look”

Time Changes is a multi-pronged demonstration of how the quartet synthesizes diverse influences into an extension of classic Coltrane-tinged Jazz. Its appeal should be to straight Jazzers as well as those interested in the evolution of African-rooted music.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Disc 1: 1. Hits 2. Donno Ntoaso 3. Freedom Jazz Dance 4. The Betrayal 5. Drum Solo for Mr. Adams, Mr. McBrowne, Mr. Roach, Mr. Jarvis, Mr. Blackwell 6, James and Hazel; Bewaa 7.Silent Spaces 8. If Only……… 9. Fontomfrom Suite 10. Naima. Disc 2: 1. Circle of Creation/Adzohu Suite 2. Dancing on the Drums 3. Longing (A Boy and a Beauty) 4. Penteng 5. The Look 6. Blues for Mister Charlie and Miss Ann 7. St. Louis Blues 8. Lift Every Voice and Sing 9, Syrinx 10. High Fly.

Personnel: David Bindman (tenor and soprano saxophones and flute); Art Hirahara (piano); Wes Brown (bass) and royal hartigan (drums, donno, hourglass drum)