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Fully Celebrated Orchestra
Grooves with smarts


With so many jam bands laying down heavy grooves and lightweight music in the name of jazz, it’s good to hear the Fully Celebrated Orchestra demonstrate that one does not have to exclude the other. A week ago last Wednesday night at the Regattabar, mental and physical energy were evenly matched as the band marked the release of their new CD, Marriage of Heaven and Earth (Innova), and premiered a newly commissioned suite by alto-saxophonist Jim Hobbs.

Hobbs and cornettist Taylor Ho Bynum opened the first set from the back of the room, exchanging bits of "As the Crow Flies" as they moved toward the stage. By the time they were in position, bassist Timo Shanko was snapping out lyric, folk-like melodies that were given a sharp edge by the abruptness of his attack. Drummer Django Carranza leapt in with an explosive bass-drum bomb and began a steady tattoo of tom-tom and snare patterns that locked in with the bass. Carranza and Shanko blend together exceptionally well, their dark sonorities creating the shifting foundation of the music, a low-register earthquake rumble that’s at once unstable and rock solid. Bynum provided a gentle contrast to the boiling rhythm team as he let his lines flow smoothly over the beat, dove down into it momentarily with a couple of short riffs, then broke his lines into a glittery mosaic of fragments. "Crazy Lady" was taken at a fast swinging bounce with Carranza maintaining a conversational chatter on the toms as Hobbs ricocheted his bold, fat-toned lines off the beat.

For "Knower of Vacuity," they shifted gears again, into a North African-tinged groove (Carranza used mallets for a rounder, even more sonorous boom) supporting an exotic theme with a long sweeping arc. Hobbs’s solo, with his notes placed like a dancer’s steps in synch with the melodic rhythmic patterns of the bass and drums, was a marvel of funky invention. On "20th Century," the band exploded into free-jazz territory. Hobbs built his solo off of a vibrato-heavy low-end/high-end call-and-response that lifted away into abstract smears and split tones — Johnny Hodges meets Albert Ayler. Bynum explored sonic abstractions in his solo as well, using a drumhead over the bell of his horn to give his notes a fuzzy edge, and interrupting phrases with squeals and whinnies that pushed them off in new directions. They ended the first set with "Makie Burnett," a raucous, funky number on which Hobbs blasted away with incantory riffs in a tone that sounded like a cross between a sea lion and an aerosol boat horn — loud, hoarse, and fun.

Hobbs’s extended "Tuft Today Milkshire Suite," commissioned by Chamber Music America as a Doris Duke Foundation Jazz Ensemble Project New Work Grant, was the highlight of the second set. Commissioned pieces like this are often too ambitious or over-serious, but Hobbs remained true to his strengths, writing a suite of tunes with melodic and rhythmic content, lots of contrast, and plenty of opportunity for improvising.

The three-part piece began with "Throne of Osiris," a nice twisty line that opened with a cornet-sax improvisation full of convoluted dips and turns that came to an abrupt end to make way for an unaccompanied bass solo. "Three Rivers" flowed over a comfortable bass vamp, Hobbs’s solo full of simple heart-felt phrases delivered in a raspy, keening, urgent tone. Bynum countered with a subdued, closely argued solo full of delicately shaded colors. The final section, "Unified Field Theory," featured a duet between Carranza and Hobbs that was one of the evening’s high points.

BY ED HAZELL

Issue Date: July 4 - 11, 2002
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