Rating:
Genre:
Jazz
Release Date: 04/22/2008
Drummer, composer and bandleader
Stanton Moore has a well-deserved reputation for diversity. Besides being a founding member of New Orleans powerhouse
jazz-funkmaster
Galactic, he's played with
Corrosion of Conformity, jammed with other traditional
New Orleans R&B and
jazz groups, and issued three fine albums as leader. On
Emphasis! On Parenthesis,
Moore is playing with guitarist
Will Bernard and keyboardist
Robert Walter, a pair of top-flight collaborators he's worked with in various settings in the past -- in particular on his third album simply called
III. Of course the trio isn't new to
Moore by any stretch. He also records with
Skerik and guitarist
Charlie Hunter under the
Garage a Trois moniker.
The album's 11 tracks all contain titles with parenthetical statements -- it is an acknowledgement of the gentle ribbing from his
Galactic bandmates that he slips parentheses into the name of almost every tune he writes. In some ways the music reflects this; each of these tunes has extensions in it, where the riff or groove starts and gets grafted onto continually with other musical statements, transforming the original vamp, groove, or riff into a more complex and varied composition. This is possible because of the incredible balance in this group. The trio setting doesn't provide the same problems as a quartet or quintet, but it also doesn't provide the safety net. Certainly
Moore's breakbeat crazy, full-force kit work is up in the mix as it should be for such a rhythmically complex groove record. He's certainly the bandleader and he composed the tunes, but this isn't a showcase for his drumming.
Bernard and
Walter are stellar partners.
Bernard is one of the most well-respected guitarists among musicians, but he's a low profile cat who is almost unknown to all guitar freaks.
Walter's profile is lower still. It makes them perfect for a date like this where everybody shines all the time.
Take the funky New Orleans strut-funk that is
"(Late Night at The) Maple Leaf." The cut was developed from
Moore's basslines out of a jam he and
Walter played with
Meters' bassist
George Porter. Some chunky yet slinky B-3 chords by
Walter dictate its opening groove, followed by funky guitar chords in backbeat driven by a 5/8 stuttering break tempo set by
Moore. It is reminiscent of
the Meters but layers interlocking step grooves into odd codas, middle fours, and turnarounds. A
boogie-woogie piano is layered on top of a bassline played by
Walter on the clavinet and morphs itself into a smoking bluesy solo (made up almost entirely of chord runs) before
Bernard moves his knotty, jazzed-up guitar lines dead center for a break.
"(Proper) Gander" is almost pure voodoo
funk propelled by nasty chords and tom-tom rim shots that get turned into a drunken swaggering steamy groove by
Bernard's twinned guitar lines.
Spy flick
funk is what drives
"(Wissions Of) Vu," propelled by a clavinet à la
Herbie Hancock's
Headhunters and an off-kilter toy piano.
Bernard plays his best
John Barry styled-film guitar line, and
Moore makes the whole thing choogle. The most overtly
jazz thing here is the following fourth cut
"(Sifting Through The) African Diaspora." There are some jagged
hard bop lines juxtaposed against funky breaks, fluid harmonic shifts and changes, and some stellar organ and guitar work moving tonal palettes through a rainbow of shades and colors. Working through a series of stretched minors and sevenths, this cut never loses its swing even at its most start-and-stop, and then slips into serious
John Patton murk terrain, digging through the
blues and groove bags before moving out towards somewhere on the frontier. It's one of the finest things here and easily the most adventurous, going through so many shapes and shifts and turns that it's difficult to even remember where it began. Another standout is the choppy, late-night soulful
"(Smell My) Special Ingredients," that slips
Fela styled Afro-funk backbeats and
rock dynamics à la the
Jeff Beck Group into its construction. Despite this amalgam of styles and tonal colors, it swings like mad.
"(Put On Your) Big People Shoes" is pure whomp funky! The snare shuffle here is pure rim-shot tough, and the
blues angler in the 12-bar set-up is deceptive in the way it stretches time via
Walter's gradations in the chord changes. In a little over 45 minutes, the listener is taken on a ride that's full of thrills and musical adventure to be sure, but more than this, it's a jag of pure pleasure that you can dance and fingerpop to. If you are still sitting on your behind (or aren't at least moving some part of your body in time), you are simply dead.
Emphasis! On Parenthesis is another big winner in
Moore's stellar catalog.
~Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
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