Spectrum Road is a jazz-rock supergroup featuring bassist Jack Bruce, guitarist Vernon Reid, drummer Cindy Blackman-Santana, and organist John Medeski that formed as a tribute to the inspiration and music of Tony Williams' pioneering Lifetime group (of which Bruce was a member). In the process of playing Lifetime's music as a project, they became a bona fide band. All but two of these cuts are from Lifetime's catalog. The set begins with the scorcher "Vuelta Abajo," from 1970's Turn It Over album. All four members come storming out of the gate on a syncopated, intense series of riffs and stops. Blackman-Santana, a Williams disciple, plays furiously with countless rolls and fills yet never drops her sense of groove. She pushes hard at Bruce's bassline while Medeski washes it all with a counter pulse and Reid takes it over into the red zone. This is excess at its level best. The hippest thing is that not only does Bruce keep that insane pace, he revels in it and works with Blackman-Santana to keep the groove funky and weird. She takes the vocal on the spacey, 12-minute "Where," which builds via her rolls and Medeski's abstract painterly touches into a true freewheeling jam with Reid and Bruce going head to head. The group interplay on "Vashkar" (written by Carla Bley, and originally appeared on 1969's Emergency) is a manic showcase for Medeski and Reid, but it's the rhythm section that keeps moving the track further onto the ledge. Spectrum Road honors Williams' example by taking real chances with his music. The way they break down "There Comes a Time" ( from 1971's Ego) with Bruce's bluesy vocals holding the ground firm under the band's improvising moves it from a somewhat staid open modal blues into something more textured, aggressive, and expansive. Reid's jazz chops on "Coming Back Home" walk a line between swing and Hendrixian blues, as Medeski swells and feeds his every line. Reid's and Blackman-Santana's rock strut on "Wild Life" would be nearly processional were it not for Bruce's and Medeski's deeply funky undercurrent. Spectrum Road's self-titled debut delivers in full on the supergroup promise; in addition, they provide the kind of forward-looking tribute that a pioneer like Williams truly deserves. ~ Thom Jurek
Personnel: Cindy Blackman (vocals, drums); Jack Bruce (vocals); Vernon Reid (guitar); John Medeski (organ, Mellotron).
1 Vuelta Abajo * 5:27 $ 2 There Comes A Time * 4:19 3 Coming Back Home * 4:38 4 Where * 12:38 5 t-Eilan Muileach * 4:30 6 Vashkar * 5:49 7 One Word * 4:16 8 Blues For Tillmon * 5:38 9 Allah Be Praised * 4:08 10 Wild Life * 4:47
Pure power takes precedence over finesse on Spectrum Road, but just barely. On this tribute to late drummer Tony Williams ' groundbreaking fusion band Lifetime, guitarist Vernon Reid, keyboardist John Medeski , bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce and drummer Cindy Blackman Santana offer just enough respite from an otherwise nonstop sonic assault of just under an hour. "Vuelta Abajo" sets the general tone as the foursome unabashed thrashes away for a little over five minutes. The ex-Cream bassist, who was actually a member of Williams' Lifetime in 1970, is the lynchpin of the quartet conceptually and instrumentally. The taut lines from his instrument lace together the guitar lines and organ where those instrumental parts otherwise might result in fission instead of fusion. Blackman- Santana, who chips in with some ethereal singing prior to the spontaneous combustion of "Where," is remarkably restrained in the midst of this cacophony, choosing to play with a (comparative) deliberation that allows at least one cool head to prevail during the course of the album's ten tracks. That said, Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid doesn't just indulge himself; he makes his instrument truly sing as it takes prominence during "Coming Back Home," while his frenetic shredding elsewhere, as on the aforementioned "Where," evinces a fiery exhilaration. Medeski, too, assumes a less brainy and more visceral approach than with Billy Martin and Chris Wood in Medeski, Martin & Wood , tellingly confining himself to just Hammond B3 organ and mellotron— in part, no doubt, to invoke the late sixties/early seventies period in which most of this music was created. Recorded in just four days in February 2011, engineered and produced by Matt Balitsaris, there's enough loyalty to the source of Spectrum Road without undermining the spontaneity of the moment(s). Apart from a single group-composed original, the ever-so-delicate "Blues for Tillman, " the CD is comprised of duly noted selections from the Lifetime discography; fortunately, "Wild Life" immediately follows the pedestrian "Allah Be Praised" to provide a fitting conclusion to the album. There's also a moody arrangement of the traditional "An-T-eilan Muileach" that, sequenced mid-album, provides a relatively peaceful pivot point, not to mention an opportunity for Spectrum Road, the band, to demonstrate that the major source of its momentum is the self-discipline by which its members manage it. Would that each member of the band demonstrated a similar restraint in the essays that fill the triple-fold glossy digipak. Then again, their somewhat verbose expression of devotion to this music and each other helps illuminate the inspiration at the heart of this project. Rather, the four relegate their intellectualizing to their prose instead of their playing—which, if Spectrum Road thought about it too much, would most definitely not course with the muscular strength within tracks such as "Vashkar."