Mitchell, Nicole / Black Earth Strings / Renegades
Album: Renegades   Collection:Jazz
Artist:Mitchell, Nicole / Black Earth Strings   Added:Jul 2009
Label:Delmark Records  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2009-07-12 Pull Date: 2009-09-13 Charts: Jazz
Week Ending: Aug 30 Aug 23 Aug 16 Aug 9 Jul 26 Jul 19
Airplays: 3 2 1 1 2 1

Recent Airplay
1. Jan 15, 2011: Music Casserole
By My Own Grace
4. Aug 23, 2009: Transmission Overload
Renegades
2. Aug 28, 2009: Memory Select - Joe Maneri Edition
Renegades
5. Aug 22, 2009: Music Casserole
By My Own Grace
3. Aug 28, 2009: No Cover, No Minimum
Crossroads
6. Aug 21, 2009: No Cover, No Minimum
By My Own Grace

Album Review
Fo
Reviewed 2009-07-11
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

Track Listing
1. Crossroads   9. Wade
2. No Matter What   10. Waterdance
3. Ice   11. Symbology #1
4. Windance   12. Mama Found Out
5. Renegades   13. If I Could Have You The Way I Want You
6. By My Own Grace   14. Symbology #2
7. What If   15. Waris Dirie
8. Symbology #2a   16. Aaya's Rainbow