Since coming of age in the nurturing environment of a very
musical family and a distinguished bloodline of drummers, New Orleans native
Herlin Riley emerged from that most creative era of all things rhythmic in the
late ‘70s and early ‘80s, to enliven the ensembles of such influential and
demanding improvisers as pianist Ahmad Jamal and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis
through his commanding yet elegant rhythmic presence. His authoritative style
of melodic percussion is deeply imbued in the fertile creative soil of the
Crescent City, encompassing as it does the entire length and breadth of
America’s ongoing musical journey.
Now the release of his debut recording for Mack Avenue
Records, Riley’s New Direction is an engaging, wide-ranging recital that
distills a lifetime of experience into a swinging body of new music that
defines what a big tent the music of New Orleans has always represented
stylistically and spiritually.
This joyous cultural amalgam of Afro-Cuban, jazz and blues
speak not just to Riley’s command of all things swinging—from the formative
days of Sidney Bechet and Louis Armstrong—but which evoke, what for want of a
better term we might call “the pocket”—those deeply dancing grooves that have
nurtured parallel streams of rhythm & blues and funk in the tradition of
such great Crescent City drummers as Vernel Fournier, Earl Palmer, Ziggy
Modeliste and Idris Muhammad.
“You see,” Riley explains, “New Direction reflects a personal transition from being a
musical associate with the likes of Ahmad and Wynton, to functioning in a
leadership capacity, both as a bandleader and a composer. Like Art Blakey, I’m
trying to maintain a certain exuberance by using all younger musicians, while
helping them develop their own voices. So many great musicians and drummers
have come out of New Orleans, and that really defines my personal legacy; I’m
standing on the shoulders of giants. But I’ve been playing drums since I was
three years old; so, while the title New Direction may suggest new bottles,
this is surely some well-aged wine.
“As a boy growing up in New Orleans, way before you heard
that big bass drum in the street parades, you could feel it coming from four or
five blocks away, and it would literally beckon you to come on down to the
street, check out this music, and participate in it. On ‘Connection To Congo
Square’ I quote the ‘Reveille’ in my intro. It reflects the melodic nature of
how I tune my tom toms and is also a symbolic call to arms, for all the cats
from the different neighborhoods to gather ‘round, and participate in this
celebration, this collective dialog.”
Well-traveled listeners might hear echoes of Dizzy Gillespie
and Chano Pozo in the Afro-Cuban celebrations of “The Crossbar” and “Connection
To Congo Square.” The down and dirty groove of “Harlem Shuffle” suggests a
connection to Benny Golson’s venerable “Killer Joe,” while the title tune (in
the person of guest guitarist Mark Whitfield) evokes echoes of George Benson
and those classic hard bop and grooving CTI sessions of yesteryear.
So when Riley and his band reference iconic elements of the
jazz tradition, listeners might very well smile contentedly in recognition of
audible gems with which they are conversant. Nevertheless, throughout New
Direction, Riley and company also essay a very personal, original rhythmic
signature on visceral, dancing arrangements such as “The Big Banana,” “Herlin’s
Hurdle” and “Hiccup Smooth.” As Riley explains it, “in everything I play,
there’s some reference from my own personal experience, and while it may not be
explicit, it’s all underneath there somewhere.”
In these powerful arrangements, you can discern Riley’s
fascination with complex rhythm cycles, where each man’s instrument seemingly
functions as a direct extension of the drummer, by layering contrasting metric
accents one upon another with varying degrees of intensity, often as a prelude
to some vigorous theme and variation by this most melodic of drummers: with wry
references to “Tequila” by saxophonist Godwin Louis on “The Big Banana;” an
expansive, asymmetrical solo by pianist Emmet Cohen on the hard swinging vamp
and release structure of his composition “Herlin’s Hurdle;” and some dancing
polymetric transitions and tantalizing dynamic shifts on “Hiccup Smooth.”
For all of the hard rhythmic driving intensity of New
Direction, Riley is not one of those drummers who needs to blast away to
captivate listeners and to remain engaged. There’s a consoling sweetness to the
thematic variations of the slow groove on “A Spring Fantasy” and the manner in
which Riley narrows the stylistic distance between hand percussion and the drum
kit—just as he elicits those mysterious bent notes of the great congueros on
his intro to the sultry changes of “Shake Off The Dust.”
And in closing out this recital with the funky call of
“Tootie Ma” (“Shake dat thang”), Riley affirmatively casts his lot with that of
his fellow tribal elders in the New Orleans tradition, such as trendsetting
R&B icons the likes of Dr. John and the Meters, who maintain that while
jazz is most definitely a collective adventure in freedom, improvisation and
personal expression, it is also good-time
music—where from time to time, you can leave your mind on idle, and engage that
part of the psyche that wants to dance.
“Still, when the music came to me, it was not with any
particular intent. Everything on this record is something I’ve lived…it’s a
product of my experience. It’s like cooking a big pot of gumbo; you may start
out with some very humble ingredients, but by the time you’re finished, you
have a meal fit for a king. I mean, the essence of jazz music to me is that it
is free, but it has form. So our music is modern, and it’s progressive, but
we’re trying to engage people as well. I do love to groove; that is a big part
of who I am, and that is why as an expression of where I would like to take my
music, New Direction feels very much like…like home.”
Herlin Riley • New Direction
Mack Avenue Records • Release Date: February 12, 2016
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