Bluegrass, jazz-rock and more in the blend – the tunes are originals of the band members in different combinations.
It sounds odd on paper – harp, banjo, drums. But you don’t listen to the sound of paper which would be a whole lot odder.
Confounding lazy expectations about what a jazz group is supposed to be about is always stimulating. QED. In that vein Edmar Castañeda (harp), Béla Fleck (banjo) and Antonio Sánchez (drums) amply deliver without being at all smart Alec told you so.
Metrically ambitious, highly syncopated, latinate in places, fun. Go with the flow – it’s easy to be sucked in even when being blinded by a blizzard of notes. OK ‘Touch and Go’ at the end is too bluegrass for me. But by that stage I didn’t really mind.
Fleck, best known for his collaborations with people like Chick Corea and his own remarkable band the Flecktones, is staggering live.
He’s the biggest ”superstar” here – his sound doesn’t belong to any one genre and he receives devotion from Americana lovers just as much as eclectic jazz or non-aligned listeners in equal measure. Not that the other two are slouches.
Sánchez known for his work with Pat Metheny I heard him live with in the Unity Band at the Barbican in 2012. And I interviewed the Mexican around the release of his own compelling politically charged Migration album Lines in the Sand some years later.
Castañeda is one of the best harpists anywhere in the same stratosphere as Brandee Younger certainly. He’d be on my bucket list to hear live going by what he does here.
Opener ‘Archipelago,’ which gives its name to the upcoming tour, a Fleck & Castañeda tune is a little Chick Corea like. Texturally the album is so unusual, the thick staccato banjo strings softened by the sweep of serene harp counterparts and then the choppy no nonsense drumming punctuates the whole thing.
Motion is the key word and there’s an elasticity in the way narrative sections expand into organic flow that arrives from any number of inputs as all three pass the ball around and lob the essential pulse up ever higher as if seeking the slam dunk of a conquered hoop to score a satisfying whoop of an outcome. Leave all expectations at the listening door, pseudery is banished and pretentious reactions frowned upon – just give in to the flood of ideas spooling everywhere. The tide is high but you’ll be holdin’ on.
- BEATrio play Cadogan Hall, London on 9 and 10 July
more from marlbank
Alcyona Mick and Liam Noble, Distant Plains: The Planets Revisited, Caliban Sounds/One Little Independent ***1/2
Two become one in the moment
Miho Hazama and the Danish Radio Big Band, Frames, Edition **** recommended
Mellow writing, cleanly voiced, strong melodies, big band backing that isn’t like an overkill at all. All these factors are part of the spell the sound achieves. Miho Hazama reaches new heights
these guys played here recently and I am so bummed I didn’t go see it.