Made In Kalamazoo (Zoom Out)
Keith Hall
Released June 24, 2022
DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k8QIbx_IZjJ1fR_Ux12AAIbURJmOJVxxQ
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/4eYJxipX5VtnDGAxcc12KZ?si=Nrzbb8HYQ7Gg909LWzRWFw
About:
Drummer and composer Keith Hall spent nine years on
the New York scene and returned to the Midwest where he has been deeply
immersed in the Kalamazoo community for some 20 years. After playing with the
likes of Wycliffe Gordon, Sir Roland Hanna, Michael Phillip Mossman, New York
Voices, Janis Siegel, Luciana Souza, Terrell Stafford and Steve Wilson, Hall
now makes his long-awaited debut as a leader. “Made in Kalamazoo (Trios
and Duos)” is a free-wheeling set of high-energy music that is a love
letter of sorts to a place Hall appreciates for its vibrant arts community,
dynamic industries and vital personal connections. The album documents the drummer’s
most accomplished and compelling playing and writing to date.
Roughly 100 miles east of Lake Michigan (across the lake from Chicago),
Kalamazoo provided the inspiration for this invigorating summit between Hall
and two of the finest collaborators he could ask for: Andrew Rathbun, a fellow
jazz studies professor at Western Michigan University and transplanted
Kalamazooan himself, on saxophones, bass clarinet and effects; and eminent
Detroit-born bassist Robert Hurst III, currently teaching at the University
of Michigan.
Made in Kalamazoo finds Hall in a few different modalities with the players
involved. There are three solo drum features — placed at beginning, middle and
end — in which Hall pays homage to the towering role models Billy Hart, Elvin Jones
and Max Roach. There are seven tracks with the full trio, including three
compelling Hall originals (“Coming of Age,” “Creative Force,” “Well of Hope”)
and four tunes that the leader co-composed with Rathbun (“Douglass King Obama,”
“Kzoo Brew,” “The Promise,” “Boiling Pot”). And there are 10 spontaneously
composed duo tracks for drums and reeds, giving Rathbun creative space to “plug
in” at times with signal processing, dirtying up the sound and leading the duo
onto new and shifting terrain.
Track Listing:
1. Be Curious (For Billy Hart) (Keith Hall) 01:23
2. Douglass King Obama (Keith Hall / Andrew Rathbun) 04:40
3. Kzoo Brew (Keith Hall / Andrew Rathbun) 07:33
4. The Promise (Keith Hall / Andrew Rathbun) 04:05
5. Boiling Pot (Keith Hall / Andrew Rathbun) 04:13
6. Coming of Age (Keith Hall) 04:37
7. Creative Force (Keith Hall) 04:50
8. Well of Hope (Keith Hall) 04:46
9. Interlude (Keith Hall) 00:49
10. Mop It Up (Keith Hall / Andrew Rathbun) 01:58
11. Sweep (Keith Hall / Andrew Rathbun) 02:40
12. Get Up Get Out (Keith Hall / Andrew Rathbun) 02:56
13. Dream Sequence (Keith Hall / Andrew Rathbun) 04:34
14. Sympathetic Vibrations (Keith Hall / Andrew Rathbun) 02:49
15. Lakeside (Keith Hall / Andrew Rathbun) 02:24
16. My Man! (Keith Hall / Andrew Rathbun) 03:55
17. What You Say (Keith Hall / Andrew Rathbun) 02:42
18. Young Man’s Game (Keith Hall / Andrew Rathbun) 03:21
19. Landscape (Keith Hall / Andrew Rathbun) 01:14
20. Thank You, Max (Keith Hall) 01:54
Personnel:
Andrew Rathbun: tenor and soprano saxophones, bass clarinet, electronics
Robert Hurst III: bass
Keith Hall: drums
Recorded May 17 – 18, 2019, at Overneath Creative
Collective, Kalamazoo, MI
Engineer: Gordon Van Gent
Mixing: Andrew Rathbun
Mastering: Chris Allen
Produced: Keith Hall
Photos: Casey Spring
Artwork Design: Matthew Fries
Review:
This is a carefully structured project built around a clear and focused vision. Drummer Keith Hall offers solo tribute to three legendary drummers — Billy Hart, Elvin Jones, and Max Roach — at the beginning, middle and end of this 20-track album. Those border seven compositions played by a trio featuring Andrew Rathbun on reeds and Robert Hurst III on bass, and 10 reeds-drums duos in a more avant-garde style. Many of the trio pieces have a churning, heavy-footed groove thanks to Hurst’s booming bass, and Rathbun’s melodies (which are often more like riffs) and solos are reminiscent of JD Allen’s work with his trio featuring Gregg August and Rudy Royston. On “Boiling Pot,” he overdubs short bass clarinet phrases behind his tenor saxophone; you almost don’t notice them at first, but they become crucial by the end. On “Coming Of Age,” he switches to soprano and the rhythm section creates a kind of meditative rubato backing. As the piece winds down, Hall sweeps it away with washes of cymbals. The duos are significantly more abstract and experimental than the trio pieces; Rathbun pushes his horns through echo and reverb on “Mop It Up,” and makes it sound like a vintage analog synthesizer from Stevie Wonder’s arsenal on “Get Up Get Out,” while Hall lays down driving beats. “Dream Sequence” is even weirder; Hall keeps his cymbals dancing and his snare work martial, as Rathbun journeys through deep space.
Philip Freeman (DownBeat)
