The three musicians who gather here are all jazz royalty. 50 years ago, 73-year DeJohnette played with Ravi Coltrane’s father John. That was in a group which included Matthew Garrison ‘s father Jimmy, bassist with the classic Coltrane quartet. Some years later, DeJohnette was the drummer on Miles Davis’s funk- gritty Bitches Brew work-out.
Bowing to dynastic traces, the trio open with a reading of John Coltrane’s baleful Alabama. The energetic Two Jimmys pays tribute to Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Garrison. It’s driving music – driving rhythms, driving pulse, driving hard bass, with spacey Joe Zawinul-style electronica from the young Garrison.
There is more of that pulsing energy on Serpentine Fire, a version of an Earth, Wind and Fire tune with the R n B/ soul-disco elements presumably extracted. Garrison’s bass wanders in its own orbit, cerebrally purring away in modal synchronicity with Coltrane’s sax. Interesting the way DeJohnette’s drums are deftly edged forward in the mix, foregrounded from the back is the net effect.
Much of the record runs on a surge of elemental energy, but there are a couple of quieter interludes, such as the trio’s meditative deconstruction of the Miles Davis classic, Blue in Green. Its logical companion piece is the concluding Soulful Ballad, a DeJohnette composition.
At times cerebral and free-form improvisation, at other times marching in step with cool precision like a slimmed-down Weather Report, In Movement proves to be an enigmatic, alluring if sometimes challenging album.
Paddy Kehoe
