You Are #6

text

Don Byron is a very eclectic musician, just as likely to cite Sly Stone as Igor Stravinsky as a hero. Sometimes it seems that he is overflowing with ideas and projects, and is pulled in many directions at once. His albums over the past decade have featured free jazz, kletzmer, swing, rap, Puccini and Roy Orbison, to name but a few.

One of Byron's more conventional albums was 1995's Music For Six Musicians, by his ensemble of the same name. This album (subtitled More Music for Six Musicians) is its successor. The ensemble's guiding principle is that their music explores Afro-Caribbean and Latin rhythms. The instrumentation here is the same as on the 1995 album, with Byron on clarinets, Edsel Gomez on piano and Ben Whitman on drums surviving, joined here by James Zollar on trumpet and flugelhorn, Leo Traversa on bass and vocals, and Milton Cardona on congas, percussion and vocals.

Throughout, the music is driven along by the percussion, achieving an infectious momentum. For instance, 'Shake 'Em Up' is straight soca, complete with an ensemble horn section to propel things along, plus call-and-response vocals (and Don Byron Senior on bass). Throughout the album, Byron's playing dominates, closely followed by Zollar's, both being particularly fine on 'A Whisper In My Ear', dedicated to the late Cuban trumpeter Mario Bauza. 'No Whine' is a slow paced and effective feature for Byron, and acts as a refreshing respite from the relentless rhythms all around it.

Typically of Byron, the album has several eccentric tangents. One such is 'Dub-Ya', a short free-form instrumental and vocal piece, doubtless named after the renowned election stealer, but not overtly critical of him. 'Belmondo's Lip' has an effective contrast between the sounds of Zollar's muted trumpet and Byron's bass clarinet. The piece appears straight, and in a second version mixed by DJ Spooky that transforms it into a dub version. This is Byron's most sustained and enjoyable album since the live No-Vibe Zone.