Ex-
Sun Ra trumpeter/flügelhornist
Abdullah expresses his brand of jazz in a modern way with mainstream swing and progressive overtones. Tenor saxophonist
Charles Brackeen, bassist
Malachi Favors, and drummer
Alvin Fielder are all fine improvisers and jazz professionals.
Brackeen's salty, dry Texas tenor blue hues mix and match especially well with
Abdullah's sound, which ranges from burnished
Dizzy Gillespie phrases to
Don Cherry's smearing techniques. In fact,
Abdullah is as close to
Cherry's style and stance as anyone, and that's a good thing. The leader has chosen three of his own compositions to showcase. "Ebony Queen" has a stairstep/up-and-down line with ostinato bass, very
Ornette Coleman-ish, with
Brackeen's wayward tenor and
Abdullah occasionally spurting shrill, elephantine vocal shrieks among mostly melodic passages, a challenging approach. A goodly swing leads to
Fielder's
Ed Blackwell-like solo. The trumpet/bass title track, depicted as
Abdullah responding to a dancer (repped by
Favors) leads into "The Ruler," a soulful waltz with contrapuntal horns, and bass solo plopped in between.
Abdullah plays piano for "Reflections on a Mystic," with
Favors' always hopeful bass leading to a ballad/dirge, to upper register tenor, muted trumpet, arco bass, then a mute out with the tenor lower pitched. There is an alternate take of "Ebony Queen," and a separate take of "The Ruler" with quite different solo construct.
Sun Ra's hard bopper "Mystery of Two" is urgent and tonic, a cut anybody can dig, while "Walk with God," actually written by a Dr. Kola, a New York state prisoner, is a Zen blues walk.
Miriam Makeba's "Mayibue," arranged by
Abdullah, evokes all the air of a South African township party, with beautiful tenor harmony and
Abdullah's breezy flügelhorn. When
Abdullah records, albeit infrequently, the consistency of his musicianship is ever present and accounted for, as on this delightful recording. Highly recommended. ~ Michael G. Nastos