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  • Thirteen Cosmic Standards

    ALP120

    Artist: Spaceways Incorporated

    Label: Atavistic

    Spaceways Incorporated, who include Chicago jazzer and McArthur Foundation "Genius" grant winner Ken Vandermark, perform free jazz, avant-rock, and hard-swinging post-bop jazz with dynamism and sharp technique. Here, they pay tribute to two cosmic aggregations, the Sun Ra Arkestra and Funkadelic, selecting choice covers, taking them down to the street-corner, and from there beaming them into outer space.

    They bring a funk-tinged quasi-Latin groove to Sun Ra's "Bassism," and a medley of Funkadelic's "Red Hot Mama/Superstupid" becomes a lean, stripped-down rhythm machine, with Vandermark wailing white-hot over the top like some mad offspring of Junior Walker and Dewey Redman. "El Is a Sound of Joy" features suave, brainy bass clarinet and stealthy, late-night cool-cat bass and drums. This trio shines a new, very personal light on some great music by past masters.

  • Version Soul

    ALP132

    Artist: Spaceways Incorporated

    Label: Atavistic

    Ken Vandermark has always been a big-picture kind of guy. Whether digging deep into the dirt for the NRG Ensemble, delighting in tight modern jazz in his quintet, or exploring any number of angles in various other settings, the saxophonist has always kept his music focused. He's that rare kind of player who dares to do anything, but never sounds at all scattered. And as such he's a gift to modern jazz.
    The collective trio Spaceways Inc. (featuring Vandermark) released its debut recording a couple years ago, and the group returns here for more pared-down playing on Version Soul. The trio dives into dub, funk, swing, and out jazz with a confident, direct attitude. The opener, "Back of a Cab," sets the stage for the rest of the record. Drummer Hamid Drake pairs with bassist Nate McBride for a deep, solid dub groove. Nothing too fancy or fast here: an ear for purity will detect sounds direct from the heart of Jamaica. Vandermark shows restraint, operating in a muted, understated melodic mode. "Size Large," the best tune on the record, grooves from the start with a delicious off-kilter funk. Listeners familiar with Vandermark's more adventurous work will delight in the booty-shaking simplicity of this original. Drake, of course, knows no boundaries, and he has an uncannny ability to take simple ideas and toss in just enough unpredictability to make them exciting. McBride picks up the electric bass and bounces back and forth from the underpinnings of the groove to some nice imp...