Gary Bartz has long been known and widely respected in the jazz world, but given his body of work, his standing should be much higher. By the end of the 60s, the saxophonist had already played in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln and McCoy Tyner’s Expansions band. He was a Miles Davis sideman (an alumni association where other members automatically got awarded legend status), and played for Miles for a few months in 1970 but at a very crucial interval as Miles’ fusion experiments were advancing at a rapid pace. Bartz was there for the vital Live-Evil and The Complete Cellar Door Sessions albums, as well as that memorable Isle of Wight concert.
Right after that stint, Bartz set out to lead his own leading edge fusion outfit, the NTU Troop. This was pretty radical music for its time, combining funk, soul and jazz that was up front about its Black Consciousness, not just in music but in words. Bartz was doing this at the same time as Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On and Gil Scott-Heron‘s Pieces of a Man but he approach was rawer and freer (and thus, had less commercial appeal). Think a funkier, more socially aware Pharaoh Sanders. Later in the decade, Bartz worked with the Mizell Brothers on a couple of long players, where the production team gave Bartz the Donald Byrd treatment: slick, sample-fodder crossover funk-jazz.
Producers and musicians Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad have certainly not overlooked what Bartz did during those turbulent times, and when this duo set about putting together their Jazz Is Dead series, it made too much sense to make a JID record with Bartz as one of the forgotten heroes of 70s funk-jazz alongside such other quietly influential figures as Roy Ayers and Azymuth. For Gary Bartz JID 006, Younge and Muhammad splits the difference between of the loose, riff-based jams of the NTU Troop days and the focused, polished disco-jazz of the Mizell era.
Certainly, “Spiritual Ideation” is a melody that would feel right at home on Music Is My Sanctuary but the JID guys prefer a production style that tones down the glistening surfaces and that leaves Bartz’s recognizable alto saxophone in the center of things. One thing that doesn’t get the focus that it used to get are the vocals, scaled back to background status, which I find is an improvement over the classic stuff, especially the Mizell productions.
A simple but funky rat-a-tat snare drum sets the table for the bright “Day By Day” (video above), the title sung in the chorus by echoing, 1973 background singers, as Bartz applies post-bop principles to modern, soul-jazz as effortlessly here as he did about fifty years ago.
A busy bass and drums figure drives “Distant Mode,” but Younge and Muhammad keep the pulsing electric piano anchored on the lighter corner, but the bridge contains short explosions of analog synths and scratchy guitar. “The Message” stands out from the bunch for its modal song structure, which is more in line with the pre-Mizell work. Bartz is heard caressing the upper limit of his horn and the mingling of Rhodes, organ, guitar and marimba behind him make for a pretty nice backdrop.
It’s never too early to explore the music of the bold and talented Gary Bartz, but thanks to a couple of producers who understand his true value to the jazz idiom, this latest release may well be the perfect starting point for that exploration.
Gary Bartz JID 006 is coming our way April 2, 2021 from Jazz Is Dead.
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