How does someone become a jazz musician? What do you need to know? Do you have to get a license or something? Over the past 60 or so years, more than a few rock musicians have introduced some jazz influences into their work in the name of expanding their world view, appearing cool, or convincing people they can do more than rewrite "Louie Louie." Very few have chosen to dive as far into the deep end as
King Khan
. On 2020's
The Infinite Ones
,
Khan
put together a crew of adventurous musicians (including
Marshall Allen
and
Knoel Scott
of the
Sun Ra Arkestra
) to plumb the outer edges of his musical thinking, and it was that rare example of a rock musician crossing the boundaries into jazz without sounding like a dilettante. Apparently emboldened by the experience,
revisits this territory on 2023's
The Nature of Things
, a set of nine pieces that blend the open-ended constructs of jazz with a side portion of world music. It's worth noting
has a resume that includes garage punk, stripped-down blues, roots music, wild party-starting R&B, and even a from-beyond-the-grave collaboration with
William S. Burroughs
, so this music comes from an intelligent sonic omnivore and not some guy who learned three chords last week before deciding he could become the next
John Coltrane
.
is smart, gifted, and bold enough to make his instrumental concepts work, and while the
Sun Ra
associates that appeared on
don't appear on these sessions, most of the rest of the crew have come back, and these players work together in inspired fashion. For this project, the band includes
John Convertino
of
Calexico
on drums,
Torben Wesche
King Khan and The Shrines
on sax,
Davide Zolli
Mojomatics
Brontez Purnell
Younger Lovers
on percussion, and
Alex White
Fat White Family
on sax and flute;
plays bass, guitars, keyboards, and percussion. The album takes its name from a television series hosted by natural scientist
David Suzuki
that was a staple in
's native Canada, and fittingly, the first two tracks pay titular homage to
Suzuki
and his work, with a global musical outlook informing
's sonic exercises, while the saxophone cross-talk of "Snarlin' Lil Malcolm" and the film noir atmospherics of "Sparkle of Truth" are great soundtrack pieces for a movie inside your head. There's no telling if the world of jazz is ready for a wild provocateur like
, but
shows he's crashing their party whether they like it or not, and he's doing so with smarts, style, and an ambitious sophistication. ~ Mark Deming