Dwight Trible - Ancient Future - Import CD

Credits:

Dwight Trible

Description:

Dwight Trible has been exploring jazzs boundaries since the 1970s, and eventually became the vocal director of Horace Tapscotts Pan African Peoples Arkestra. Trible also sang with transgenerational collective Build an Ark (co-founded by Carlos Nino and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson), as well as saxophonists Kamasi Washington, Kenny Garrett, and Pharoah Sanders. In addition to jazzers, he has also guested with funk, rock, hip-hop, and R&B musicians. Hes employed plenty of both live but has never allowed for wholesale experimentation with his approach. Until Ancient Future, that is. This set, like its excellent predecessor, 2019s Mothership, appears on Gearbox and was produced by Darrel Sheinman. Musically, all similarities end there. Tribles core quintet includes longtime collaborator, jazz keyboardist John Beasley, gospel bassist Andrew Gouche (Winans, Mighty Clouds of Joy), drummer/percussionist Greg Paul (Jazz Is Dead), and veteran guitarist G.E. Stinson (Shadowfax). Opener "Truth" is introduced by rippling electric bass, drum cymbals, and skittering synths. When Trible begins singing, its almost a prophetic declaration: "Right is wrong/Wrong is right/... Yall know truth is in exile ... Lyin is in style right now...." Beasley layers a Hammond B-3 atop a pulsing synth as Paul double times the band with breaks, rolls, fills, and accents. "My Stomping Ground" is its polar opposite. Introduced by funky left coast bass and electric guitar lines, Trible speaks as much as he sings, but its not a rap, its more like a poem relating the singers personal landmarks in the City of Angels. Beasleys synth adds a crescendo as a refrain, but the band comes right back, low, slow, and steamy. "Beach Vibes" is warm, spacy, and carried by Gouches roaming bassline. Trible allows himself to be buoyed by Rhodes piano, guitar, and Pauls lithe drumming. The nearly ten-minute "Derf Recklaw" pays tribute to the former Pharoahs and Build an Ark multi-instrumentalist and longtime friend who passed away in 2022. Bass and keys lead it off as Stinson colors the margins with shard-like vamps while Beasley creates a wide sonic palette to frame the rhythm sections canny interplay. He also provides Trible with an improvisational ledge to explore. "Black Dance" is the sets longest cut. It weds vanguard electric post-bop, mutant funk, improvisation, and R&B with a killer duet vocal and solo from Georgia Anne Muldrow adding resonance. "African Drum" weds 70s-era West African highlife via Stinsons guitar to guest Kamasi Washingtons tenor sax, a languid yet swinging African rhumba rhythm under funky, trance-like Afrobeat keys and bass. Closer "Wind" is a humid, nocturnal exercise in ambient abstraction that recalls the Fourth World music of Jon Hassell as Trible moans and wails in and around the music. Tribles vocals are, as always, warm, spiritual, and instantly recognizable; Ancient Futures compositions -- written by the quintet -- rely on dynamic electric instrumentation, funky polyrhythms, and abstract harmonics. Using a deliberate spatial approach, they balance circular interplay, deep listening, and killer improvisation. Ancient Future is an auspicious new direction for the vocalist. ~ Thom Jurek

Tracklisting:

1.Truth
2.My Stomping Ground
3.Beach Vibes
4.Derf Recklaw
5.Elements
6.Black Dance
7.African Drum
8.Wind