feature photo: Andrea Boccalini
For his debut album as a leader, in-demand drummer Jeff Ballard (Brad Mehldau, Ray Charles, Chick Corea, Sam Yahel) introduced his long-running trio with Lionel Loueke (electric guitar) and Miguel Zenon. Time’s Tales (2014) blew a lot of minds away — including mine – en route to several year-end nods. But Ballard also heads up a quintet, one that further explores the electric side of Ballard; retaining Loueke, this larger band adds two keyboardists (Kevin Hays, Pete Rende) and a guy in charge of the electronic sounds (Reid Anderson).
With Fairgrounds, Ballard moves further away from mainstream jazz and integrates more fully other music forms while keeping himself challenged on the drums. Every track here he tries out something new. For instance, Ballard uses “Grounds Entrance” to advance the notion that hand-made rhythms can not only coexist but thrive with modern electronica. “YEAH PETE!” isn’t as exuberant as the name implies, but Rende’s Rhodes colorings sets the harmonic table and Ballard does some nifty snare work that’s loose while steady in its timekeeping. Organic and synthetic come together on the spare, wafting “I Saw a Movie” and Kraftwerk styled electro establishes the sterile mood of “Marche Exotique,” countered by Loueke’s West African-derived guitar and vocal as well as Ballard’s exotic percussion.
Ballard gives his band mates free rein to take songs to a higher level. Loueke’s singular guitar style comes closer to the fore on “The Man’s Gone,” a wah-wah rhythm delivery that’s so percussive practically an extension of Ballard’s drums. “Hit the Dirt” is the first single spun off this record, featuring the under-appreciated voice of Hays singing the stanzas in a manner akin to Bill Withers and underpinned by the slinky funk from Ballard. “Twelv8” features dissonant sax blasts coming from Ballard’s FLY Trio compadre Mark Turner. “Miro” is at its core a lovely piano ballad that is supplemented by synth touches and Ballard playing to the piano instead of to any time signature. But the peak comes when Loueke step out front to deliver a pretty, penetrating guitar solo.
The collective spirit is often what makes the performance so effective over individual spotlights. “Grungy Brew” is a sweaty workout for the leader, but he alters his tempo over the course of the song in concert with the roiling outbursts of keyboards and Turner on another guest turn at tenor sax. “Soft Rock” feels like a delicate collective jam, summoning the character of early Weather Report. And finally, Ballard metes out a tribal beat for “Cherokee Rose” that’s softened up by Rende’s Rhodes and Chris Cheek’s lead sax.
Jeff Ballard had set even less restrictions on himself and his band for his second album than he did for his first. There’s an oddly compelling mixture of sounds old and new with no set roadmap on how to accomplish it because these live-recorded sessions are so based on feel. But the thing that makes it hardest to easily pin down Fairgrounds is Ballard himself, who never, ever approaches his drums like anyone else would. His eagerness to break rules and set new ones guarantees that this album is going to stand apart.
Fairgrounds is now out, through Edition Records.
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