How do you reconcile a harmonically basic, rhythmically upside-down idiom like
Bob Marley
's
reggae
with the
bop
-derived environment in which pianist
Monty Alexander
usually works? Indeed,
Alexander
prefers not to choose, gambling audaciously by combining a six-piece Jamaican
rhythm section,
the Gumption Band
, with a three-piece
jazz
rhythm team. That makes for an interesting tussle; one rhythm section surges in front of the other and vice versa in a constant battle for supremacy (
usually comes off as the more dominant force). Sometimes
Monty
is limited to just a single right-hand line (
"Is This Love?"
); a '90s equivalent of those '60s albums where mainstream bopsters restrained themselves trying to cover Top 40 tunes. Not until
"Stir It Up,"
which sounds a bit like
Ahmad Jamal
getting into the
groove, does
at last sound like a melodically free man.
"No Woman, No Cry"
ignites midway with a good fusion of a pure
groove and some harmonically advanced
,
"So Ja Sah"
has a swinging union of the two sections that also respects
Marley
's unusual rhythmic concept, and there is a hot remix of
"Could You Be Loved"
as a bonus track (with master drummer
Sly Dunbar
). Guest trombonist
Steve Turre
seems right at home with the
gait on
"Running Away"
and gets a straight-ahead
solo in a slightly frenetic
"I Shot the Sheriff."
There isn't any doubt that
loves
's music -- listen to his simple, touching
elegy
"Nesta (He Touched the Sky)"
-- yet this attempt to pay homage only comes together in patches. ~ Richard S. Ginell