Devin Gray is a restless talent. Just a few months after the New York/Berlin-based drummer, composer and bandleader unveiled a new, pan-Atlantic quartet, he uncorked new recordings by his new, pan-Atlantic trio, Melt All Guns, calling it Melt All The Guns II.
OK, it’s not entirely new: the Melt All The Guns EP preceded this in 2021. That threesome boasted Ralph Alessi at trumpet and Angelica Sanchez on piano. The music — recorded pre-covid — was intended to call attention to America’s gun violence epidemic.
Now post-covid and a monumental election upon us, Gray felt a need to make protest music again that is not really angry but nonetheless vibrant, melodic and full of detail coming from just three musicians. Ralph Alessi remains on board for the band’s debut long player, and replacing Sanchez is French pianist Myslaure Augustin.
As this is a drummer-led band whose drummer is capable of complex rhythmic patterns, of course the music here is going to be rhythmically-centric. But as becomes instantly distinct from the opener “East Berlin 2024,” there’s a wide void between the drums and the tonal instruments, pulling the curtain further pack on what Gray is doing and he acquits himself quite well under that extra exposure.
Moreover, Gray arranges his band so that Augustin occupies primarily an accompanying role, but a role that’s more critical where it’s largely up to her to set out the harmonic parameters of each song that are often abstruse but contains an elegance that she is charged with bringing to the fore. Augustin executes the plan with a great deal of insight. Alessi, too, gets much leeway, thriving and feeling liberated with the heavier task put on him. Listen to him engaging almost excitedly with Gray and Augustin during “Swing States”
“Administration Rulez” has a loosely Latin feel but not so much that Gray can’t follow his muse and go in a different direction, leading Augustin and Alessi (now on muted horn) with him and smoothly transition back to the motif set forth at the beginning.
The careening “Melt All the Guns II” halts at the height of the disorder, a soft, reflective denouement left in its wake. Augustin’s ostinato provides the steady pulse for “More Meritocracy,” allowing Gray to react to and actively engage with Alessi. Gray concocts an airy, wandering melody for “No More Walls” and all three play single-mindedly to serve it.
Alessi, once again with the mute, inhabits Miles’ doleful lyricism for the closing “Broom Lyfe.” One of top trumpeters on ECM Record’s current roster, he gets very perceptive support from Gray.
Regardless of what one might think of the political messages of Devin Gray, his musical messages are undeniably mighty. Melt All The Guns II comes to us from Rataplan Records and is currently available over at Bandcamp.
*** Devin Gray CD’s and vinyl on Amazon ***
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