Outbreak - Dennis Chambers

Jun

21

Outbreak - Dennis Chambers

≡ Category: 2000s, Essential, Fusion, Jazz Funk, Jazz Rock, Post Bop, Reviews |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING

Rating:

Outbreak may have drummer Dennis Chambers’ name above the title, but this is really producer/keyboardist/arranger/composer Jim Beard’s date, and that’s just fine. Of course, Beard has designed the album to showcase Chambers’ awesome drum playing, and that’s one of the major pleasures of Outbreak, but only one among many.

Beard has recruited some awesome players. Randy Brecker is tremendous, both as a section player and as a soloist. Listen to what Randy does on Jim Beard’s composition Roll Call. He has a flawless mute sound on trumpet, and his note choices are endlessly creative as he employs heavily chromatic lines around the key center. Saxophonist Michael Brecker is also featured. It’s always great to hear him playing riffs with his brother. Outbreak was recorded just before Michael made a major breakthrough in his playing, so he’s playing in his older style, but he’s still great. Bassist Gary Willis can always be depended on to be funky as hell, as on John Scofield’s Otay. Speaking of which, Scofield plays on the date, too. He has a killer solo on Baltimore, DC, utilizing the squiggly lines familiar from Scofield’s Uberjam release. Who else? Those are the big names, but all the other musicians do a fantastic job on executing Jim Beard’s charts.

Oh, and that’s another major selling point of Outbreak. This is a rare chance to hear Jim Beard’s wizardly arrangements, and Beard has also contributed four compositions.

I love how, on Roll Call, Beard uses bass sax and trombone on a contrapuntal line in a major scale, which counterpoints the pentatonic melody, paradoxically making the whole thing more bluesy and funky. Role Call is in a sort of modified march rhythm. It’s incredibly witty. Check out how Beard comps off the beat in a repeated staccato, especially at the end of the tune, which disintegrates in a hilarious way.

Or how about the arrangement on Groovus Interruptus, where Beard interrupts the groove to have the horns make witty commentaries at the end of the phrase? And how cool is the bridge, in which the trombone and bass sax share a horn part which plays off the beat?

These arrangements are killer funky, like modern day James Brown, but with jazz harmony.

Some might be tempted to dismiss or downplay the greatness of Outbreak because it focuses so relentlessly on R&B and funk. But it’s not so easy to create arrangements that groove this hard.

For that matter, Jon Herrington’s Paris On Mine is a bit of change of pace. In tone and groove, it reminds me a lot of John McLaughlin’s New York On My Mind, which is definitely a compliment (and, judging by the similar titles, probably deliberate).

Outbreak is fantastic from first note to last. If you dig fusion, R&B, funk, Dennis Chambers, or Jim Beard, you need to own this.