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Kidd Jordan & Hamid Drake: A Night In November - Live in New Orleans
ByExcept for "Wade in the Water" all pieces are the result of spontaneous compositions. And even though the duo engages in some hyper-mode cat and mouse episodes and occasionally blast off into parts unknown, there is a synergistic force that accentuates these six extemporized compositions.
Jordan's razor-sharp choruses are often countered by Drake's spinning polyrhythmic patterns amid some nip and tuck articulations and precision-oriented thematic build-outs. They delve into Afro-Cuban formats and operate within variable cadences. And while many avant duo sessions are nestled in bombastic howling and screeching burnouts, this duo contrasts many of the fire-breathing sequences with fragmented shifts in momentum, dictated by second- guessing of each other's moves. It's like a rapidly moving chess match, sans a winner or loser. Therefore, the musicians' improvised mechanics and free-will underscore the pacing of the two sets.
There are a few temperate interludes, yet on the extended piece "Tenor and Drums," Jordan's ringing vibrato technique is interspersed with bluesy plaintive cries atop Drake's sturdy backbeats. As they counter and mimic each other with alternating flows, featuring the drummer's slick hi-hat and snare work. Here, the artists explore a conglomerate of variants, while slanting off the core rock pulse.
Part of the magic is how they infuse conventional wisdom with a surfeit of unanticipated paradigm shifts and expansionary tactics that combine discipline with an inexhaustible array of ideas and modes of execution.
Track Listing
Set One: Alto and drums; Drums; Tenor and Drums; Tenor – Wade in the Water; Set Two: Tenor and Drums.
Personnel
Kidd Jordan
saxophoneKidd Jordan: alto and tenor saxophones; Hamid Drake: drums.
Album information
Title: A Night In November - Live in New Orleans | Year Released: 2013 | Record Label: Valid Records
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