Russell Gunn – Love Stories – HighNote

by | Dec 2, 2008 | Jazz CD Reviews | 0 comments

Russell Gunn – Love Stories – HighNote HCD 7183, 55:41 ****1/2:

(Russell Gunn – trumpet, flugelhorn, additional keyboards, drum programming; Kirk Whalum – tenor sax; Brian Hogans – alto sax; Orrin Evans – piano, keyboards; Mike Scott – guitar (tracks 7 & 9); Carlos Henderson – acoustic and electric bass; Montez Coleman – drums; Heidi Martin – vocal (track 7); “Super” Dave Darlington – faders)

The trick here is how to retain the authentic sensibilities of these related but quite different musical styles while creating something authentic, attractive, and substantive.  A cynic may complain that this is simply a jazz ploy to lure a larger (hip-hop) audience into an increasingly shrinking music (jazz).  A cynic of a different sort may complain that this is a thinly disguised attempt to infuse a marginalized music (hip-hop) with unearned jazz creds.  They’d both be wrong. 

What we have here is a genuine coming together of discrete musical styles to form a kind of third thing: jazz/hip-hop.  This disc strikes me as every bit as legitimate as other jazz-fusion forays, be they jazz-rock, world-jazz, or funk-jazz.  A confession: my demographic (Baby-Boomer white male) fits neither the culture out of which hip-hop arises nor the audience for which it is intended.  Nevertheless, I find myself strangely drawn to this, for me, rather outré amalgam. 

The inherent inner-city chaos and menace that provides the backbone of hip-hop is brilliantly evoked in “Because I Love You (The Stalker Song)” with its scary ringing-phone intro, daunting piano vamp, and creepy background atmospherics mapped onto a genuine striking trumpet/sax dialog that morphs into a very impressive sax solo from newcomer Brian Hogans.  The mood carries forward with a calliope-sounding keyboard intro over a staccato bass figure that blends into a moody flugelhorn passage supported by sympathetic saxes on T-Pain’s evocative “I’m in Love with a Stripper.”  “Bitch, You Don’t Love Me,” with its dirge-like faux-harpsichord, jittery sax solo, downer piano, and ominous bass beats, ups the ante almost off the table.  The mood cannily shifts into one of somnolent euphoria with DeBarge’s “Love Me in a Special Way” only to be jolted awake halfway through by a stinging sax solo from Hogans, who firmly establishes himself as “Someone to Watch.”  Cole Porter’s “Love for Sale” gets an attractive hip-hop facelift with its funky organ intro, grooving piano, thumping bass, and street-smart Heidi Martin vocals. 

Perhaps the most intriguing number (also the longest) is “Ghandi’s Love,” with its sub-continent hand-percussive vibe joined to synth-claps, thumping bass, and funky horns undergirt by suggestive organ washes and capped off by a very attractive blues-drenched Orrin Evans piano solo.  The clincher comes with a sample of Ghandi’s own voice intoning some bracing sentiments on the enduring presence and unseen power of Love. 

Though the love stories assayed on this powerful disc tend to walk on the wild side, there’s enough uplift (“He Loves Me,” “All You Need Is Love,” “Love Me in a Special Way,” “Ghandi’s Love”) to balance things out and even provide a reason for hope.  A brave experiment grandly pulled off.

TrackList:

Love Requiem
All You Need Is Love
Because I Love You (The Stalker Song)
I’m in Love with a Stranger
Bitch, You don’t Love Me
Love Me in a Special Way
Love for Sale
Ghandi’s Love
He Loves Me
The Stalker Song – Alternate Ending

– Jan P. Dennis

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