Ocean Bridges (Redefinition Records)
Damu the Fudgemunk / Raw Poetic / Archie Shepp
Released May 22, 2020
AllMusic Favorite Jazz Albums 2020
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https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lAl-Yy3UFNySK_NuI6U3qOEfQJK5y3A4c
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About:
The album is our first “Jazz” project. It is called “Ocean Bridges” and is a full length collaboration with the legendary Archie Shepp. Raw Poetic is the sole vocalist over improv recording sessions of live musicians that he produced via having access to the masters and co-director of the recording date. It is very much an organic collaboration where we had contributors of different and overlapping musical sensibilities in one space. The results were documented live in the recordings. Damu the Fudgemunk says “It is an honor to work with Mr. Archie Shepp. We will cherish the memories for the rest of lives. I hope that these mixes translates the energy that took place in the studio to listeners of these works. The album has a “one of a kind” feel to it in my opinion. Hip Hop and Jazz have crossed paths for decades, but this album was created without any labels or direction therefore the finished product sounds like a very natural and unforced conversation of numerous ideas that transcend a genre. But, I’d say it’s in the vein of Miles Davis’ “electric period” meets Fela Kuti with a few “straight ahead jazz” concepts if I had to think of something similar”.
Track Listing:
1. Valuable Lesson 00:59
2. Learning to Breathe (Album Version) 02:05
3. Professor Shepp’s Agenda 1 (Archie Shepp) 01:25
4. Tulips 06:03
5. Professor Shepp’s Agenda 2 (Archie Shepp) 02:28
6. Aperture 12:36
7. Professor Shepp’s Agenda 3 (Archie Shepp) 01:37
8. Moving Maps 06:09
9. Professor Shepp’s Agenda 4 (Archie Shepp) 01:50
10. Sugar Coat It 08:53
11. Professor Shepp’s Agenda 5 (Archie Shepp) 00:54
12. 12 Hour Parking (Pat Fritz / Jason Moore) 06:50
13. Professor Shepp’s Agenda 6 (Archie Shepp) 02:08
14. Searching Souls 07:58
15. Professor Shepp’s Agenda 7 (Archie Shepp) 04:56
Personnel:
Archie Shepp: tenor and soprano sax, Wurlitzer electric piano
Raw Poetic (Jason Moore): vocals/raps/lyrics
Earl “Damu the Fudgemunk” Davis: drums, vibraphone, backing vocals, turntable scratching,
Pat Fritz: guitar
Aaron Gause: Wurlitzer electric piano, synthesizer
Luke Stewart: acoustic and electric bass
Jamal Moore: tenor sax, percussion
Bashi Rose: drums, percussion
Produced and Arranged by Raw Poetic
Executive Album Production, Sequencing and Mastering by Damu the Fudgemunk
Recorded by Sean Russel (Recording Engineer at Blue Room Music Studios Herndon, VA), Earl Davis (NW, DC) and Jason Moore (Arlington, VA)
Mixed by Earl Davis and Jason Moore
Art & Design by Joe Buck
Review:
Since beginning his jazz career with the Cecil Taylor Quartet in 1960, saxophonist Archie Shepp has sought to illuminate the influence and evolution of the African Diaspora in modern culture in music, literature (as a poet and playwright), and education (he taught university for 30 years). Ocean Bridges is a collaboration with nephew Jason Moore (rapper/children’s author Raw Poetic) and DJ/producer Earl Davis (aka Damu the Fudgemunk). It marks Shepp’s first recorded foray into hip-hop. Moore sent numerous projects to Shepp over two decades, but after the saxophonist heard the collaborative work by Moore and Damu the Fudgemunk, he signed on readily. Ocean Bridges was 100-percent improvised live in the studio, placing it firmly in the jazz and freestyle wheelhouses. Shepp plays tenor and soprano saxophones and Wurlitzer, Raw Poetic is primarily a vocalist and lyricist, and Damu plays drums, vibes, and turntables. The rest of the band includes guitarist Pat Fritz, keyboardist Aaron Gause, bassist Luke Stewart, Jamal Moore on tenor and clarinet, and Bashi Rose on drums and percussion. In “Learning to Breathe,” Raw Poetic’s fire-spitting delivery is mic’d at the level of the increasingly funky vamp. The ensemble chants the refrain in unison, and Shepp’s tenor soloing moves from inside to outside and back. “Aperture” starts as spacy free jazz with an Afrobeat snare accented by upright bass; Shepp and Jamal Moore trade lines as vibes and scratching turntables fill in the sonic margins. Raw Poetic’s rhymes are furious and edifying; they iterate gratitude, anger, unity, collective suffering, the collective creative impulse, and survival. Shepp switches to soprano; his tone and range on both instruments are much more physical than in the last few decades. “Moving Maps” weds turntablism, guitar, and Wurlitzer in an airy, spacious mix that showcases Raw Poetic at his smoothest as Shepp blows soul-jazz underneath. Between each tune are numbered spoken interludes called “Professor Shepp’s Agenda.” They’re off-the-cuff teachings in sociology, political awareness, and cultural reform, and none are preachy. In the first one, Shepp critiques the “anti-academic feeling among black kids” and laments that education “has become a bad word,” in America. “Searching Souls” finds upright bass, electric guitar, and keyboards all seeking a vamp but Shepp’s tenor establishes it. Raw Poetic describes the countless contributions the African Diaspora has made to the developed world, even as its descendants continually seek new forms of self-determination and expression. Ocean Bridges is inviting; its grooves and lyric flows never let go, making the attraction for modern jazz listeners and cutting-edge hip-hop fans palpable. The set’s relaxed pace reveals instrumental music and speech as roots of the same metalinguistic tree, with rap, poetry, and polemic as its fertile branches. Because of the urgency, affirmation, and deeply moving immediacy of this project’s voices funneled through an organic process of creation, Ocean Bridges stands in a class of its own.
Thom Jurek (AllMusic)
