Jazz
Recorded at Uberstudio, Chicago, Illinois on January 13 & 14, 2000
Spaceways Incorporated
Ken Vandermark (saxophone)
Nate McBride (acoustic & electric basses)
Hamid Drake (drums)
Producers: Ken Vandermark, Brendan Burke, John Corbett.
Vandermark, Drake & McBride channel the finest moments ever waxed by intergalactic masters Sun Ra & Funkadelic
Spaceways Incorporated, who include Chicago jazzer and McArthur Foundation "Genius" grant winner Ken Vandermark, perform free jazz, avant-rock, and hard-swinging post-bop jazz with dynamism and sharp technique. Here, they pay tribute to two cosmic aggregations, the Sun Ra Arkestra and Funkadelic, selecting choice covers, taking them down to the street-corner, and from there beaming them into outer space.
They bring a funk-tinged quasi-Latin groove to Sun Ra's "Bassism," and a medley of Funkadelic's "Red Hot Mama/Superstupid" becomes a lean, stripped-down rhythm machine, with Vandermark wailing white-hot over the top like some mad offspring of Junior Walker and Dewey Redman. "El Is a Sound of Joy" features suave, brainy bass clarinet and stealthy, late-night cool-cat bass and drums. This trio shines a new, very personal light on some great music by past masters.
JazzTimes (12/00, pp.101-2) - "...Alternates sinuous tunes by Sun Ra with the brash, galvanizing funk of George Clinton..." |
