Search - Terri Lyne Carrington :: Structure

Terri on her game with a killer band . . .

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 06/21/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

". . . hard to beat.Let's start with the band. Adam Rogers (guitar) is slowly but surely establishing himself as one of the most in-demand jazz guitarists on the scene. It's easy to see why: classic clean single-note lines and brilliant comping on electric; spacey, coloristic offerings on acoustic. Greg Osby, despite the fact that he has had a difficult time carving out a defined solo presence on his handful of discs as leader, is undoubtedly among the very finest alto sax players of his generation, if not the finest. His presence here casts a huge shadow. He plays with uncanny authority, maturity, and a tone to die for. The ringer is Jimmy Haslip on e-bass. The venerable Yellowjackets bassist, not particularly noted for his straight-ahead chops, strangely seems the perfect choice for this disc--perhaps because he brings a more diverse sonic palette and a wider conception to his instrument than the typical bop-based acoustic bassist. One hesitates to use the dreaded F-word (fusion), but this disc partakes of a wide enough sonic and conceptual sensibility that perhaps that shopworn term at least approaches its vibe. Leader TLC seems to have found her mojo in between the release of her entirely creditable, but not spectacular, previous disc, Jazz Is a Spirit. Always displaying monster chops, she seems to have found a context that both displays them to greatest advantage and seamless (though often intriguingly) integrates them into the overall aural signature. I'm a big believer in the idea that the best jazz usually comes out of the context of a working band (e.g., The Claudia Quintet, Ben Allison's Medicine Wheel, The Dave Binney Group), and this group sounds like a working band. Anyone interested in a very high-quality snapshot of what top-notch, thoroughly modern jazz sounds like will want to check out this fine disc. Those who are already familiar with the territory will appreciate this extraordinarily fine example."