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I stand by? / Seeds of the future / Rise of humanity / Everything is sacred The additional singing by Quiltman adds a lifting counterpoint to the weeping pedal steel and Huckfelt’s unadorned vocal. There are many shining moments on Room Enough, Time Enough, and some of these are a result of his friends who joined him on the album. One particularly affecting David Huckfelt performance is the duet with Greg Room Enough, Time Enough Brown on the classic Red Hayes DAVIDHUCKFELT.COM song “Satisfied Mind.” The juxtaposition of Huckfelt and Brown avid Huckfelt’s 2021 Room trading verses is like one man singEnough, Time Enough gets its ing at two different stages of life. title from the name the Navajo used to describe their ancestral homeland, When they both sing the final verse wrapped in lush pedal steel guitar, it near where Huckfelt recorded the brings chills. “When my life is endalbum in Tucson, Arizona. Its rocky ed, and my time has run out / My landscape influenced the Western themes of the record. Being in Tucson friends and my loved ones I’ll leave there’s no doubt / But one thing’s allowed Huckfelt to take a more communal approach to recording the for certain when it comes my time / album, which also gave him an oppor- I’ll leave this old world with a satistunity to draw inspiration, collaborate fied mind.” Tucson luminaries (and founding and elevate Native American voices. members of Giant Sand) Howe In a press release Huckfelt credits Gelb and Billy Sedlmayr bring Johnny Cash’s controversial 1964 their southwestern influence to concept album Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian as inspiration Huckfelt’s retooling of the dusty cowboy standard “Bury Me Not,” for him, and that album’s approach to historical storytelling looms large. which Huckfelt describes in an email: “We turned the narrative of Cash faced harsh criticism and westward expansion on its head, ultimately censorship by the very retold here as a warning to honor radio stations who built his career. Native lands and respect the Earth.” He wouldn’t receive the recognition The addition of Calexico sideman he deserved for *Bitter Tears* until Jon Villa on mariachi-style trumpet many years later. A 21st century America isn’t much solo locks in a spaghetti western flavor. more enlightened, and the use of As much as a reunion of songwriters and performers to raise awareness for issues like water rights Huckfelt’s band the Pines would and discrimination makes Huckfelt’s be welcomed, his solo albums have documented the path of a songwritalbum daring and a little edgy—not what we expect from his typical atmo- er and musician coming into his own. With the history of his years spheric, peaceful folk. A great example of this blending is in the Pines in his rearview (for “The Book of Life,” a circular mantra now, anyway), the road ahead is one written by Native American artist and paved in the folk tradition of colsongwriter Keith Secola, who is also laboration and activism. Huckfelt says in the same email that Manifest on the album. The song is verse-byDestiny has left our spirits and the verse prose; a list of questions interplanet sick and in great need of polated with faith and hope. healing. Clearly his music is the Everybody worries / Why do we strong medicine we need. promise? / What is existence? / —Michael Roeder Why does it matter? / Who should
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Steve Grismore Trio Better Times (Are a Comin’) GIZMOJAZZ.COM
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f the music collection in your head includes the work of the late Ornette Coleman, there is a reasonable chance you have it filed under “weird” or “difficult” or even “unlistenable.” That may be true even if you consider yourself a jazz fan. Coleman, a multi-instrumentalist best known for his work on the saxophone, pioneered the style known as free jazz in the mid-20th century. A quick synopsis of the style from Vox: Free jazz is highly experimental even for jazz, chaotic and often dissonant by design, rejecting traditional boundaries of tonality and rhythm. It can come across as more art movement than musical style, and thus as opaque and self-serious—as work. So, maybe not the kind of record you put on to get yourself going in the morning or to help you unwind when you get home in the evening, right? Well, maybe. But in many cases—including in Coleman’s music—the jazz-ness of free jazz takes priority over the freeness. Case in point: the Steve Grismore Trio. On the ensemble’s new album, Better Times (Are a Comin’), primarily made up of music composed by Coleman, they remind listeners that free jazz isn’t all weirdness, dissonance and angularity. Sometimes it swings. Sometimes it’s soulful. Frequently, it’s catchy as all get out. Grismore—guitarist, University of Iowa School of Music jazz
faculty member and co-founder of the Iowa City Jazz Festival—is joined by Danny Oline on bass and Fabio Augustinis on drums. The album was recorded at the University of Iowa over two days in mid-July 2018, but its uplifting title made it perfectly appropriate for a 2020 release. The record kicks off with Coleman’s “Ramblin,’” which sounds just like you would expect a traveling song to sound, complete with a shuffling drum pattern suggesting some unhurried forward momentum and Gismore’s warmtoned guitar meandering in an appealing, relaxed style.
FREE JAZZ ISN’T ALL WEIRDNESS, DISSONANCE AND ANGULARITY The Coleman-composed tracks remain in an appealing lane for the entire record, though six tracks in, “Lonely Woman” asks a little more of the listener. The drums are forward, the guitar is a little distorted in spots, and there is a little less obvious cohesion binding what the players are up to. Nevertheless, the mood of the piece certainly does suggest a kind of melancholy loneliness befitting the title. “Back in the O.R.R.” and “The Messaround” are easily the most “out there” tracks on the record, and neither is a Coleman composition. Instead, they are group improvisations in keeping with the free jazz aesthetic. The fact that these two tracks are the two shortest on the record suggests the trio is well aware that these experiments may not connect with every listener. Still, they are important nods to Coleman’s overall musical legacy. The record closes with the title track, which Grismore composed. The number centers on a hummable central figure and brings the angularity of free jazz into a pleasing balance with its melodic and swing-driven possibilities. —Rob Cline
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