Plumb (J.M.I. Recordings)
David Murray / Questlove / Ray Angry
Released June 23, 2023
DownBeat Five-Star Review
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kHGukmolR9NRP9oK6GIgQdOlbhnuknim8
Spotify:
About:
This is the big one. The culmination of something, we’re not sure what. Questlove’s association with David Murray goes back decades, to a live performance in London and an appearance on an early Roots record. Questlove’s association with Ray is somewhat more recent but no less profound. As Questlove expanded his achievements and fame from musician to entrepreneur to author to Academy Award winning filmmaker to cultural icon, he’s always highlighted and collaborated with creatives he deems worthy. After hearing about our label during his work with Steve Mandel, he decided WE were worthy of his time as one of his creative homes. So it was, that on one day in late Summer, 2022, Quest, David and Ray, with no rehearsal or planning, sat down in Reservoir Studios, took their places at their instruments, and for the next few hours locked into some of the most otherworldly music we’ve heard. When the recording session was over and the musicians left, it was like a typhoon came through. Everything was changed. We can’t go back. We don’t want to either.
Track Listing:
1. Plumb 16:46
2. Intro to Ninno / Ninno 13:00
3. Pleiades 4:35
4. Atomic Number 15:18
5. Scalene 15:33
6. Orgone Pyramid 4:42
7. 5 Minute Joint 4:33
8. False Dawn 4:05
9. Love 2:35
10. Light 3:59
11. Pink Noise 16:22
12. Whet 15:12
13. Brown Doves 14:31
14. Mondays 4:56
Personnel:
David Murray: tenor saxophone, bass clarinet (8)
Ray Angry: keyboards
Questlove: drums
Review:
At two-and-a-quarter hours, Plumb pulls off the near miracle of maintaining surprise and revelation throughout it. But the achievement is greater still: The eponymous album by the unusual trio of tenor saxophonist David Murray, keyboardist/producer Ray Angry and drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (both members of hiphop band The Roots) is loaded with hooks, meaty improvisations and experimental weirdness, and not a one of them ever becomes tired. “Pleiades,” a solo synth-noodling expedition for Angry, manages to be hooky, improvisational, and experimental all at once, even though it’s a short connecting strand between two longer tunes (Murray’s irresistible “Ninno” and the delicious collective workout “Atomic Number.”) Not that length — tunes here range from two minutes to 17 — implies superiority; “5 Minute Joint” (which actually overstates its length) has catchy funk for days, while Murray’s four-minute solo bass clarinet feature “False Dawn” offers some of the album’s tastiest licks and most alluring swing. That said, epic length does sometimes augur epic scope. “Pink Noise” is bifurcated between a nearly dancefloor-ready Questlove groove and a fluttering cooldown. “Brown Doves” is an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink suite. While Murray is as creative and technically fluid as ever, and Questlove is on point (though he trades more in funk figures than hip-hop beats here), Plumb is Angry’s showcase. He brings the hip-hop juice, the widest variety of moods and colors and the most solo spotlights. If that’s what it takes to forge such a masterpiece, let him have it.
Michael J. West (DownBeat)
