In recent years we have featured a couple modern jazz releases in our top ten albums of the year. At Shakenstir we view music as a language with many dialects and hence our propensity to include jazz with rock, folk, dance, world, pop, etc., etc… In 2005 at least one jazz album will find its way into the top echelon of releases, and it’s this one. And it could even top the list…

FLOW is an extraordinary album featuring Blanchard on trumpet, Brice Winston on tenor and soprano sax, Lionel Loueke on guitar and vocals, Herbie Hancock on piano (selected tracks), Aaron Parks on piano (selected tracks), Derrick Hodge on bass, Kendrick Scott on drums, Howard Drossin on synth programming, and Gretchen Parlato on vocals. Many of these names are unknown to me but they contribute so much to this wonderful record they deserve mentioning. Herbie Hancock also produced the album to perfection.

The sleeve notes include the following comment from Blanchard, “Over the years, I have learned that friendship is not enjoyable if it does not challenge my ideas or make me think about new ones.” It’s a succinct and profound statement that many popular rock musicians should take to heart, including Coldplay. The opening track Flow, Part 1 is a downbeat, dark, contemplative affair introduced by interwoven bass and percussion. Blanchard then enters in expressive, wandering and lyrical style. The other players continue to provide a subtle backdrop with Scott on drums providing the most incredible spells of intuitive work. It’s a stunning opening gambit complete with a strong melody and the most superb production. Wadagbe (intro) and Wadagbe then follow opening with plucked guitar, echoed percussion and a distinctly African ambience. The synth provides a dream-like backdrop as Loueke provides an incredible African vocal that weaves in and out of the haunting instrumental landscape. It’s a hugely epic intro for the main course that adds vocal harmonies and a western-styled jazz vibe. There are moments when instruments go into freefall before settling down to a piano-led lounge vibe, before building again. I don’t think I’ve heard better modern jazz tracks than these, ever.

Benny’s Tune is a mournful trumpet-led beauty with the most profound melody and a shadowy vocal that tags onto the trumpet line. Simply beautiful. The Source is a melodic, gentle, wistful piece featuring Hancock on piano with Winston supreme on sax. There’s great diversity here with songs like the glacial and moving Over There designed to soothe the most troubled mind, and Child’s Play that injects jaunty humour into proceedings. The album finishes with Harvesting Dance, a mid-tempo song with another huge melody and Spanish-tinged vibe. It’s my hard-to-choose pick of the tracks with its closing segment of stunning invention.

FLOW is a modern jazz masterpiece, and one that every lover of the genre should own. Blanchard is to jazz what Radiohead is to rock, and you can’t get much better than that…

5/5