Russell Gunn
Released September 25, 2001
Grammy Nominee Best Contemporary Jazz Album 2002
YouTube: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_ny6vJWoBwvPJsJym3GK7RpB4HUC2JwwRM
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/3ZGAli8Y8GfxHgYcY5LLsQ?si=mwuAM_ORQQicSagfhWTsFg
About:
Trumpeter Russell Gunn moves to the Canadian indie label Justin Time for the second installment of his Ethnomusicology project, a hybrid of jazz and hip-hop. Like volume one (from 1999), volume two is hobbled by a certain conceptual stiffness and never quite hits its mark. Ultimately, volume one has more to recommend it. There’s a paucity of original material this time around; too much time is spent on halfhearted funk arrangements of jazz classics: Monk’s “Epistrophy” and Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing” and “Caravan.” Gunn also reworks the Mike Flowers urban contemporary ballad “I Wish” and Lalo Schifrin’s “Anita.” (The latter is retitled “Del Rio”; it reappears as a hidden track well after the disc has played out.) There are only two full-length Gunn compositions: the mellow Brazilian-tinged minor blues “Dance of the Concubine” and the smooth jazzy “Lyne’s Joint.” Stellar playing is heard, however, not only from Gunn himself, but also tenor saxophonist Kebbi Williams, trombonist Andre Heyward, and pianist Marc Cary, who doubles capably on Fender Rhodes. Bassist Lonnie Plaxico and drummer Woody Williams lay down the rhythm, which is well-recorded and huge-sounding. In support roles are guitarist Carl Burnett and turntablist D.J. Apollo, with Sherman Irby making a particularly effective guest appearance on flute. Track number six, at one minute and 15 seconds in length, finds Kebbi Williams blowing over a furious drum’n’bass groove. Titled “Kebbi Williams Interlude,” it seems intended as a brief bonus and not much more. Oddly, it’s the best thing on the record by far, a clear indication of what this band can do when they let their hair down. Why there isn’t more music like this on the album is a mystery.
Track Listing:
1. Intro (A.K.A… I Think I Love You) 2:03
2. Epistrophy (Kenny Clarke / Thelonious Monk) 6:30
3. Del Rio (A.K.A. Anita) 5:56
4. Dance of the Concubine 8:18
5. It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Go-Go- Swing) (Duke Ellington / Irving Mills) 6:08
6. Kebbi Williams Interlude 1:14
7. I Wish 5:13
8. Caravan (Duke Ellington / Irving Mills / Juan Tizol) 6:47
9. Lyne’s Joint (Russell Gunn) 9:12
10. Outro 15:04
Personnel:
Russell Gunn: trumpet, flugelhorn, piano, fender rhodes, keyboards
Gunn Fu: vocals
Andre Heyward: trombone
Kebbi Williams: tenor saxophone
Marc Cary: piano, fender Rhodes
Carl Burnett: guitar
Lonnie Plaxico: acoustic bass
Woody Williams: drums
D.J. Apollo: turntables
Special guests:
Sherman Irby: flute, alto saxophone
Shedrick Mitchell: piano
Tony Suggs: keyboards
Recorded at Sorcerer Sound, New York,
Producer: Russell Gunn
Executive Producer: Jim West
Engineer: Dave Darlington
Graphic Design: Reid Morris
Review:
Russell Gunn’s Ethnomusicology, Vol. 2 is a study in unfulfilled expectations. On the album’s cover, trumpeter Gunn stares forlornly into the distance, perhaps because he has been painted in blackface and strung up like a marionette against the background of an American flag. The album itself, however, lacks any discernible antiestablishment content. The first two tracks feature a piano loop stolen from a Greg Nice song and lyrics that rapper “Gunn Fu” partially borrows from a D-Nice song, respectively; however, hip-hop style makes few incursions into the rest of the album, and neither do MCs with the word “Nice” in their names.
More seriously, despite the cover imagery and the liner-note quote thanking the Canadian indie label Justin Time for “letting me make the record I wanted to make” (both of which appear to refer to Gunn’s awkward dalliance with Atlantic for Ethnomusicology, Vol. 1), Vol. 2 shuns excitement of any kind, preferring to serenade the listener with mildly funkified versions of jazz classics.
Gunn rhymes over a reasonably invigorating version of Thelonious Monk’s “Epistrophy,” but elsewhere the results are embarrassing; the beat of “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Go-Go Swing)” lacks both bite and drive-which means it is not a go-go beat-and the track itself is a lackluster theme-and-improv. “Caravan,” “I Wish” and “Del Rio (aka Anita)” get similarly pallid treatment. Only two tracks (“Dance of the Concubine” and “Lyne’s Joint”) are originals from the barrel of Gunn, and both meander smoothly and without much incident.
Ethnomusicology, Vol. 1 suggested an artist who had begun to explore the possibilities of a new style, with occasionally exciting results; Vol. 2, unfortunately, features Gunn playing it soporifically safe. One hopes he will go back to advancing the state of scholarship if there is a Vol. 3.
Andrew Lindemann Malone (JazzTimes)
