To jazz trumpeter, composer, bandleader and mentor Dave Douglas, folding political activism into his music is nothing to him (hard to believe that Strange Liberation is fifteen years old now) but the upheaval seen in Washington and elsewhere since 2016 has amped up the political awareness of a lot of people, and Douglas is no exception. Though there are no lyrics with which to convey messages, UPLIFT, Twelve Pieces For Positive Action is a call to action.
Douglas himself lays out the meaning behind the music in the album’s program notes:
All hands on deck. It’s imperative that all of us, together, work for positive change in this challenging moment. 2018 is a crucial year in the history of equality and democracy in our country and around the globe. It’s easy to be demoralized by the blizzard of news. UPLIFT began as a reminder — to myself — to stay positive, stay active, and stay engaged.
As a jazz fan, what I find particularly uplifting about UPLIFT is that Douglas has assembled a dizzying array of talent around himself to make this record, to play compositions that Douglas composed with firm purpose. He’s got Joe Lovano on sax, Bill Laswell on electric bass, Ian Chang on drums, and a couple of guitarists that are also pretty highly regarded: Mary Halvorson and Julian Lage.
Moreover, Douglas oversaw music that might be broadly called ‘jazz,’ especially due to its improvisational qualities, but freely roamed between the straight-jazz, fusion and avant-garde realms.
It’s a lot of strong musical personalities to distill — though Douglas and Lovano has been playing together a lot lately — yet the alchemy of these potent ingredients immediately generates sparks. “Power of the Vote” starts off with these strong musical personal personalities feeling each other out and then after some aggressive simul-soloing from the two horn players, the band suddenly settles into steady, coordinated footing.
Admittedly, the presence of both Halvorson and Lage is what piqued my interest the most. Halvorson has shown on various guitar summit albums and playing in Marc Ribot’s band that she can handle the interaction with another plectrist. Lage, I felt, was prepared for this from his time performing with Nels Cline. Halvorson and Lage swap lead/supporting roles on “Power,” and on “Lift All Boats,” they both in their own way create an atmosphere of a hazy glaze though Halvorson leans harder on effects pedals. For “Truly The Sun,” both of them turn up the distortion and go jazzcore as the song ramps up to its unhinged apex. Taking advantage of having a pair of guitarists on hand, “Sharing a Small Planet” is an unabashedly rock ‘n’ roll tune.
It’s hard to ignore the rest of the talent at hand, however. Lovano’s effortless sax lines are dripping with soul even though Douglas didn’t necessarily construct “Every Town” as a soulful song. As the least-known member of the group, it should be noted that Chang’s finely shaded drumming makes a big impact on this tune. “Shine Like the Dawn” has a barren soundscape perfectly set by Laswell and Chang. “Truly The Sun” has three amps making a large footprint on the sound, but Lovano and Douglas keep it fundamentally a modern jazz song.
Douglas makes each song stand apart from each other. The bombast that launches “Love Is A Battle” signals a free-for-all and it’s fun to hear the diverse, brilliant musicians run wild around each other. “Trail of Dreams” is the respite from all that unbounded blasts of energy, Lage and Halvorson combining to state the esoteric melody and Lovano/Douglas offering counterpoints; the leader later takes the reigns with an affected muted trumpet. “A Tree Planted By the Rivers of Water” is constructed around a cyclical, descending figure, not too unlike “Nefertiti,” but dappled with electronic noises. The Uplift band never seems more cohesive than it does on the jaunty, melodically pleasing “Truth is Truth.”
Every Dave Douglas endeavor has an ample amount of ambition behind it, but with an A+ roster of musicians and bound by a clear sense of purpose, few of his records have more driving it than UPLIFT. UPLIFT, Twelve Pieces For Positive Action is available only via the Greenleaf Subscription Series. Click here for more details.
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