Dennis Gonzaléz New Southern Quintet - Old Time Revival

Entropy Stereo
ESR014

Locale often plays an important descriptive role in the ensembles of Dennis Gonzalez. Over the years he’s fronted assemblages as diverse as Dallasneworleansippi and NewDallasAngeles, the imbedded cowboy capital being the geographical locus of his operations. Breaking the mold a bit on his latest project, the trumpet maestro expands emphasis to a regional scope and draws on the talents of associates old and new. Saxophonist Andrew Lamb is relatively new to the fold, but Tim Green, Malachi Favors and Alvin Fielder have long served in actualizing Gonzalez’s melodically infused music. The self-described intent of the set is to capture the intensity and excitement of religious tent shows, a Southern rural institution since before Reconstruction. The band on hand shows itself up to the challenge.

Five out of the six compositions are of Gonzales’ devising, the sixth being the work of drummer Fielder. Each opens up liberal space for passionate soloing that takes on the musical equivalent of parishioners having their say at the pulpit. Lamb’s hoary tenor seems the most at home in these dramatic surroundings and he wails away frequently with unfettered abandon. Even more impressive is the way in which Gonzalez’s arrangements make the ensemble sound like a far larger aggregation than their modest quintet size would suggest. On the opening “The Matter At Hand” Green’s saxello sails first across the sporadic dark harmonizing of the other horns. Gonzalez’s ensuing solo authenticates conclusively why he’s considered as having one of the most beguiling brass tones in the business. Taking his sweet time, he lays back on Favors’ percolating pizzicato, voicing soothing notes in hypnotic succession. Lamb brings up the rear; loosing melancholy-hued melodic ribbons from his tenor that wrap around the taut supporting stanchions of Favors bowed and plucked bass.

“Document For Charles Brackeen,” for an old friend of Gonzalez’s with whom he was recently reunited, keeps the tension brewing, but leavens it with a truly resplendent theme first seized upon by the trumpeter and later reconstituted by Lamb’s spiritualized saxophone. Fielder and Favors scare up a storm behind them without allowing a cleanly countable tempo to materialize. The drummer is also integral to the action on “Hordes of the Morning Star” where his press rolls parse the passages of unified horn interplay. Lamb soon breaks ranks and dives horn-first into an interval leaping statement steeped in burly horn scouring exuberance. Fielder shapes further drum breaks that signal the successive soloists starting with Gonzalez in contemplative mode. Green’s monstrous bass sax chortles and grunts somewhat uncertainly beneath a canopy of cymbals and snare before the band reassembles for a galvanized return through the theme. His work on the heavy horn sounds more assured on Fielder’s “Four Moods for Carol,” a sectional piece broken up by interludes of searching rumination and some particularly inventive texturing by the composer’s sticks.

“Hymn for Albert Ayler” pays communal respects to another free jazz proselytizer par excellence. Sprouting from a ravishing anthemic root, the piece blossoms beautifully into individual statements by Lamb, Gonzalez and Green. Each man extemporizes at length in styles that target straight for the emotions. The title track approaches the underlying religious rubric of the session through a logical summation as the ensemble launches forth at a galloping tempo through another circle of solos starting with Green’s singing saxello. The mix across all tracks is a shade diluted in spots, but hardly distracting considering the strength and energy of musicianship on hand. Hearing the gospel herein, it’s safe to say Gonzalez has succeeded in accomplishing his aims of invoking the spirit of part of the country he calls home.