Trying to look back at this heavy year (in every respect), I was trying to remember the good jazz music. Somehow, most of it pointed at reissues. Not that there isn’t good new talent around, but then, except James Brandon Lewis and Theo Crocker, the names suddenly started to escape me. Then, I remembered a name I had high hopes from a few years back when his first “solo” album came out, and when his new “band” outing came out at the beginning of the year, I had a first impression that it was a bit flat. I’m talking about Jaimeo Brown.
Out of curiosity, and in the search for the year’s best, I returned to both of his albums the 2013 “Transcendence” under his name and this year’s “Work Songs” , under the name Jaimeo Brown Transcendence. Boy, was I right about the first album and wrong about the second one!
The exuberance and energy of the first album still fascinates. Like James Brandon Lewis, Brown is inspired by spiritual music, although along with gospel, he integrates the blues, Indian music, basically anything that has a kindred musical spirit. His drumming on that album was all over the place, but in a positive way, obviously inspired by a giant like Elvin Jones. The inclusion of guitarist/producer Chris Sholar and sax player JD Allen (who seems to be another James Brandon Lewis kindred player) just beefed up the greatness of the sound. But it is the inclusion of one of the great pianists of today, Geri Allen, somebody Brown already played with, on the “Power of God”, something that seems like a subdued track that is the albums highlight.
At first, “Work Songs”, sounded a bit flat. Gone was the obvious energy and exuberance of the first album, particularly since Brown seemed to have subdued his circular drumming. But then, over another (and then quite a number of other) recent listen(s), the album started to open up and show its multitude of layers. The instrumentation seems a bit sparser, but the thematic concept of work songs (African American, Indian, Chinese, of everybody who had hard work to do in building his homeland) ties it all together in a way that is unassuming but actually impressive. With this one, the devil (as in hard work) is in the details, like in “Lazarus”, where the vocals, slide guitar and sax, which suddenly throws in a chorus from “Whistle While You Work” from Disney’s Snowhite, make a potent statement.
Obviously, Jaimeo Brown is up to great things. He did make one of the best jazz albums of 2016.
