RON
BLAKE
Sonic Tonic
Mack
Avenue
Ron Blake’s latest CD, Sonic Tonic,
is this summer’s groove-based disc featuring top-drawer
jazz musicians exploring a variety of styles that include
jazz, soul, R&B, blues, reggae, Carribean musical styles,
funk, and possibly several more, sometimes within the same
track. The pieces are crafted by producer Meshell Ndegeocello.
In her role as Blake’s Teo Macero, Ndegeocello puts
tracks together in such a way as to create a vibe or a mood,
but if you look closely at the tracks and their sequencing,
you don’t find an overriding theme. The disc lives
up to its title, though, because it is a tonic for the ears
and for the mind. If you’re feeling stressed out or
troubled or just a little weary, this music will give you
a great feeling, the way that funk and soul from New Orleans
does.
Blake and Ndegeocello give us New Orleans,
and they also give us the Caribbean. The driving “Tom
Blake (Revisited)” which features Blake’s labelmate
Sean Jones on flugelhorn, provides a fiery taste of the
culture and energy level of the islands. The title track
is a greasy tenor and organ combo number, with keyboardist
Michael Caine on organ, and David Gilmore on electric guitar,
punctuating Blake’s R&B tenor stylings. Drummer
Terreon Gully adds a hint of reggae backbeat, and bassist
Reuben Rogers keeps the groove going like Michael Henderson
used to do in Miles’ band (you know what I’m
talking about!) These tracks lie at the album’s center,
surrounded on each side with other sonic gems that are all
distinctly different, yet are shaped by the overall sound
of the album in order to create a sustained mood. “Invocation”
begins as a Coletranish modal romp, and it continues to
build that way, with Blake taking solos on both tenor and
soprano saxophones. “Chasing the Sun” is a very
straight-ahead quintet piece that could have come from a
late ‘50s Blue Note session. Then there’s a
brief interlude, “Your Warm Embrace” that pushes
us forward several decades and leads into a stellar version
of Johnny Griffin’s composition “Dance of Passion.”
With a soulful Latin vibe, the piece utilizes trombone,
French horn, and tuba in order to create an arrangement
that recalls both the ‘jungle music’ of Duke
Ellington’s early Cotton Club days and the work of
some African pop artists. In the words of Emeril Lagasse,
“Dance of Passion” ‘kicks it up a notch’
an puts the listener on notice that they will hear whatever
it occurs to Mr. Blake and Ms. Negeocello to add to the
tonic.
Blake does two songs from film soundtracks,
and provides great tenor performances on both. “The
Windmills of Your Mind” lets Blake loose on Michel
Legrand’s most ruminative melody ever while the trio
of Michael Cain, Christian McBride, and Chris Dave roil
behind him. By the time the group locks into a groove, you’ll
be deep, deep inside Blake’s sonic universe. Following
“Tom Blake” is Ron’s version of the song
“Pure Imagination” from the film Willy Wonka
& the Chocolate Factory. Performed as a duet with
Blake and pianist Cain, it provides the song with the dignity
of simplicity that it demands. Sonic Tonic closes
out with the super chilled out “Pissarro’s Floor,”
which combines elements of ambient music with modern R&B
balladry.
If you’re feeling a little ‘spaced
out’ at the conclusion of that journey, Blake provides
the ‘bonus track’ “Invocation (Dance of
Fire)”. While still mellow, the track features a drum
–n-bass style drum track, with congas adding to the
rhythmic texture. The CD also currently contains a limited
edition second disc featuring 2 remixes apiece of “Dance
of Passion” and “Tom Blake” as well as
a remix of the title track. How you feel about these is
going to depend on how you feel about remixing in the first
place, but they are, all by themselves, powerful mood enhancers.
Ron Blake is not the first to try the approach heard on
Sonic Tonic (Roy Hargrove and Courtney Pine come
to mind) but he does really well with it, and the results
are both musically satisfying and fun.
