We've long appreciated the work of the composer Anthony Branker going back over a decade to Uppity on the same issuing label here Origin - and our admiration grows still more. Themed as a celebration of and dedication to the composer's mother who is in her late eighties and who is suffering from dementia, Branker knows how much his music lifts his mother and revisits some of his earlier work in her honour.
It's a really good band that Branker musically directs who play his compositions including late period Bowie saxophonist Donny McCaslin, trumpeter Philip Dizack, pianist Fabian Almazan and distinctive throughout the Methenyian double bassist Linda May Han Oh who is so cool on 'Imani' (Faith).
'Imani' is a Branker piece that was interpreted differently on 2005's Spirit Songs (an album that found room for trombone within the reggae tilt in the sound).
Also on the studio recording made in New York back in January are the great Frisellian drummer Rudy Royston, guitarist Pete McCann, who takes an appealing lead role on the jazz-rock flavoured 'When We Said Goodbye' and vocalist Aubrey Johnson niece of the late much missed Lyle Mays - Aubrey is also on the new Allegra Levy release Out of the Question and brilliant here on the incantatory Uppity piece, 'Three Gifts (From a Nigerian Mother to God).'
Songs My Mom Liked also includes 'The Holy Innocent (for KB and the Children of Gaza)' and the beautiful textures of 'Land of Milk & Honey' a big highlight that opens out into a fine solo from Almazan. Truly guys if a UK reader a message to you Rudy, Rod Youngs is like your doppelgänger stylistically, just independently arrived at.
Warm, gentle, reflective, with a slight bittersweet quality in a good many places there is also room for a busier more hard bop feel on 'The House of the Brotherhood of Black Heads' where there are bustling roles for both McCaslin and Dizack. Branker's daughter's 'If' written when Parris was only 11 is an upbeat way to end a delightful recording full of light and grace.
Out on 21 June. 'Praise' is streaming
Tags: Reviews
