NICOLE MITCHELL’S BLACK EARTH STRINGS: Renegade
Delmark, 2009

POSTMODERN JAZZ – This chamber quintet (flute, strings and percussion) blends an avant-garde approach and strong world music influences into an approachable but challenging cross-cultural stew. Mitchell’s restlessly inventive flute explorations, matched by the agile band, blaze a unique, compelling path through modern jazz. This music digs down to the roots but also looks boldly toward the horizon. Neat!

Nicole Mitchell - flutes, piccolo, vocals
Renee Baker - violin, viola
Tomeka Reid - cello
Josh Abrams - bass, gimbre
Sirazette Tinnin - drums, percussion

* * * * | Fo’s Picks: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 13, 16

1. 5:54 – funky staccato walk: twirling flute, emotive violin, shifting percussion
2. 3:49 – urban stroll, leaps through several short sections, impressive solos
3. 3:53 – upbeat hop/skip/jump melody, sparkling interplay all around
4. 3:50 – gimbre (North African bass) leads a jaunty trip across the sands
5. 3:24 – avant-jazz: quick phrases, linked by tangled solo strands
6. 5:28 – gentle fantasy: lovely cello, low flute moan, empowering vocal at end
7. 4:36 – lopsided yet funky groove: piccolo jabs/thrusts, bass seems amused
8. 1:56 – amorphous slumps and smears, heavy on the bass
9. 6:03 – adventurous reworking of a classic spiritual melody, great arranging
10. 5:19 – a series of abstracted settings, full of ancient mystery
11. 3:32 – free-jazz: scramble, then very slow, abstract interplay, solo violin
12. 4:17 – snappy strut; lively boppish solos all around
13. 4:00 – sneaky midtempo, cinematic & dreamlike with happy floating flute
14. 1:40 – relaxed bass improvisation slinks between slow strings
15. 5:43 – oblique intro, jogs lightly, breaks up into free jazz, settles like dust
16. 3:47 – upbeat: childhood and butterflies, but it turns serious later on…

[ Fo ] 07/11/09