ALL ABOUT JAZZ - A Review by Douglas Payne
(April 99)
COXA
Richard
Bone
The multitalented and multi-textual
keyboardist Richard Bone continues his ambient
reflections on mid-1960s jazz with Coxa, his
tenth disc as a leader and a sequel of sorts
to 1998's bossa-oriented Electropica. Coxa, an
anatomical term meaning hip bone (clever,
huh?), is again inspired by producer Creed
Taylor's galvanizing Verve productions of the
mid-1960s. Here, though, Bone spices his jazz
impressions with the work of vibesmen Cal
Tjader and Dave Pike as well as Rudy Van
Gelder, who single-handedly engineered the
bulk of sixties jazz that appeared on Verve,
Blue Note, Prestige and Impulse.
Evocative is probably the best way to describe
what Bone, a one-man orchestra, accomplishes
here. While his tunes are all engagingly
melodic, he concentrates more on setting or
conveying a mood than exploring lines or
melodies. Therefore, a jazz listener with a
given set of expectations might feel as lost
at sea in Bone's brew as someone expecting a
new-age cocktail. But Bone, as usual, captures
and holds attention by delivering
imaginatively conceived rhythms and subtly
shifting rhythmic patterns.
Whether Bone knows it or not, Coxa most
clearly recalls the interesting and
unfortunately forgotten music Kenyon Hopkins
made in the 50s and 60s under Creed Taylor's
auspices (especially 1963's Blue Canary and
1965's Mister Buddwing, both on Verve and out
of print). Hopkins was a music supervisor on
many film and TV projects through the 1970s.
But he always brought a colorful jazz
vocabulary to his music and engaged top
talents in the jazz field to bring his
memorable sketches to life.
Bone comes close to achieving the same thing
here (albeit with less overt improvisation) on
the intriguingly titled "Dragneta, My Love"
(the disc's best track), "Outside The
Incrimination Field" (a smoldering soundtrack
number suggesting something from Alphaville)
and the swinging "Amorita Dive" (working the
organ groove of Jimmy Smith). The disc's
opening and closing numbers ("Garden," "47
Youth Street") are both ballads out of the Bob
James bag. And while I'm not sure what the
Pike references are here, the spirit of Cal
Tjader rocks through Bone's "Playa Six" as if
the vibist himself was dancing through a
Brazilian rain forest (a mood which also
prevails on the disc's unnamed ninth
track).
Something tells me that Bone hasn't finished
musing upon this fine period of jazz (finally
and only recently acknowledged as worthwhile).
"Dragneta, My Love" suggests an exploration of
jazz-funk. But who knows. Bone could go
anywhere next.
Songs: Garden; Playa Siz; Outside the
Incrimination Field; Amorita Dive; Dido; What
If (If What?) Dragneta, My Love; 47 Youth
Street.
Players: Richard Bone: all
instruments.