The Mark
Lomax Trio - with the drummer-leader joined by saxophonist Eddie Bayard and
bassist Dean Hulett - have created a boldly dynamic suite on African
mytho-spiritual themes with the album Isis and Osiris, to be released September
16, 2014, by Inarhyme Records. Isis and Osiris follows Lomax's lauded 2010
album, The State of Black America - which All About Jazz declared
"audacious" in bridging "the firebrand music of the 1960s from
today's world," walking "the roads traveled by John Coltrane, Albert
Ayler, Sonny Rollins, John Tchicai and Archie SheppŠ to deliver an unflinching
tour-de-force." Jazz Chicago called the album "electrifying,"
while Lucid Culture said: "This album is a clinic in making every note
count: Lomax is the rare drummer who leaves you wanting more, leading his
bandmates through a strikingly terse, brilliantly counterintuitive and
ultimately joyous series of explorations." And Jazzwise summed up the
virtues of the previous album in a way that applies equally to Isis and Osiris:
"This is an impressively conceived and executed piece of work, one in
which the gravitas of the title is matched by the depth of both the composing
and improvising of the trio."
Isis and
Osiris - featuring melodies of deep-blues feeling and polyrhythms evoking
Africa traditions - brims with thematic unity and improvisational fire in the
spirit of John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. The Mark Lomax Trio is a telepathic
unit, colored by Bayard's moving, muezzin-like keening, Hulett's ever-earthy
tone, and Lomax's detail-rich drums that drive the music with a composer's
will. The tracks of the album are woven like a tapestry, with interludes that
connect the sequence and feature the talents of each player solo. This is
exciting, affecting music, accessible to all lovers of jazz past and present.
The
release of Isis and Osiris comes shortly after the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation
Proclamation - an ideal time to reflect on the roots of African-American
culture. While Greco-Roman mythology permeates the learning on which much of
American culture has been based, the beautiful creativity at the heart of
Egyptian and African mythology hasn't reached the mainstream in quite the same
way. Isis and Osiris is Lomax and company's instrumental offering to help right
the balance, inspired by the stories and history of Africa and its descendants.
Lomax
says: "I wrote the melody of my piece 'Isis' as part of the music I
composed for my wedding, and a few years later, Eddie wrote his for 'Osiris.' I
always thought the themes complemented each other. Then I was talking with some
composer friends about how great it would be to create music around Black
African mythological and spiritual themes in the way that movies, music and
literature have been created around the resonant themes of ancient Greece and
Rome. I turned to working on a setting for the 'Isis' and 'Osiris' themes
immediately after that conversation.
"I
drew on Nubian rhythms for the opening 'Kemet,' and 'Isis' is a character piece
highlighting the characteristics of wisdom, power and love ascribed to the
goddess believed to be the mother of all living things," Lomax continues.
"Eddie's 'Osiris' is another character piece, one that portrays the
strength and majesty ascribed to the god by his followers. 'Chaos' is a group
improvisation depicting the god Set, his murder of Osiris and the battle that
saw him defeated by Horus. 'Love' extends the Isis theme, its melody
corresponding to the quest by Isis to resurrect Osiris and undo the work of
Set. 'Resurrection' represents the defeat of Set and the ascension of Osiris as
supreme in the pantheon of Egyptian gods."
Reflecting
on the process to create Isis and Osiris, Lomax says: "Musically, I'm
inspired by such drummers as Elvin Jones, Max Roach, Michael Carvin and Ed
Blackwell, as well as composers Ellington, Monk and Mingus - and Bartók and
Ravel, Bill Banfield and Hannibal Lokumbe. Eddie and I worked together in much
the same way as did Duke and Strayhorn. But I also used improvisation as a tool
to connect the themes as Coltrane did in A Love Supreme. Eddie and Dean are
musicians who believe in the power of music to make profound statements. We've
been performing together for more than a decade now, and I can't think of more
sympathetic artists I could be working with, musically or spiritually."
Lomax's
father, Dr. Mark A. "Ogunwale" Lomax, wrote an evocative liner note
for Isis and Osiris, elucidating some of the mythic fables of Africa that his
son and his bandmates drew on for the album's inspiration. He concludes:
"The chaos in the Kemetic divine community was brought on by jealousy,
hatred, conspiracy and murder, but it was defeated by love. Love is the power
that overcomes negativity and violence as ultimate realities. Love is also what
allows Lomax, Bayard and Hulett to conjure the spirits of the ancestors. The
drums roar and cymbals crash, resonating and putting us on a firm rhythmic
foundation. The voice of the bass vibrates in frequencies deep and wide, so as
to settle the soul. And the saxophone soars and laments, petitions and praises so
that we are swept to heights where memory marries imagination and finds new
vision."
Reflecting
on the conflict and violence that seem to dominate the headlines, Lomax says:
"Albert Ayler said, 'Music is the healing power of the universe.' That's
true in that love is what can heal the world, and music is a loving art."
As a
drummer, Mark Lomax has led his own groups and has been featured as a member of
the Marlon Jordan Quintet, Delfeayo Marsalis Sextet, Ellis Marsalis Quintet and
Azar Lawrence/Edwin Bayard Quintet. He has also performed with jazz legend
Clark Terry, as well as saxophonists Billy Harper, Bennie Maupin, Victor Goines
and Wessel "Warm Daddy" Anderson. Lomax has also toured with many
local and regional bands playing a wide variety of styles, from folk, blues and
rock to funk, gospel, R&B and hip-hop. As a composer, he has written jazz,
gospel and classical works, and his orchestral arrangements of gospel songs
have been played by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and National Symphony
Orchestra, as well as the Czech National Symphony. He has produced eight
recordings for his BMR label that range from traditional and more avant-garde
jazz to gospel music for children. Lomax recently completed a Doctor of Music
Arts in composition at Ohio State University.
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