James Singleton | "Malabar"

James Singleton is one of the most in demand bass players in New Orleans. This is, of course, saying quite a lot. But it’s no exaggeration. At 66 years old, Singleton has accompanied everyone from Chet Baker, Ellis Marsalis, and Charlie Rich to John Scofield and James Booker. But he is much more than a reliable sideman. Singleton is a core member of Astral Project, a group that OffBeat has called “the finest modern jazz ensemble in New Orleans,” and since 2016, Singleton has performed and recorded as a founding member of the lauded Nolatet. Perhaps even more significantly Singleton has ventured far beyond New Orleans and into the farther reaches of creative music and improvisation, collaborating with Chicago jazz experimentalists Charles Rumback, Jim Baker, and Greg Ward on recordings for the venerable underground label Astral Spirits.  

It is for all these reasons that Malabar, Singleton’s new full-length recording as a band leader, is something of a miracle. 

Malabar marks the first time on vinyl for Singleton’s compositions, and the session was executed by a stellar and versatile sextet employing trumpet, electronics, guitar, vibraphone, saxophone, clarinet, flute, and of course Singleton’s commanding and adventurous bass playing. At times sweeping and romantic, at other moments chaotic, Singleton’s writing––and leadership––allows for the players to stretch out, but never beyond an engaging and fully engaged sense of narrative. We may not be sure exactly what the story is, but there is nothing other than fierce focus in the dramatic and soulful sense with which these players execute the narrative’s implications. 

The music on Malabar will likely call to mind Dave Holland’s Conference of the Birds, Charles Mingus’ Black Saint and the Sinner Lady or Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra. But Malabar is no throwback to 1963 or 1973. Singleton’s vision is firmly cast, forward and up. And the work here has as much to do with the aforementioned Chicago experimentalists and some of their cohorts like Luke Stewart, Ken Vandermark, and Rob Mazurek. Malabar is another chapter, a brililant new chapter in James Singleton’s evolving songbook, and one that will be remembered as such for years to come.