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CD review
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Culture Catch, CD review >>
Gibbs has been an integral member of cult faves Power Tools, Ambitious Lovers, Eye & I, and Harriet Tubman. Over the past three decades he’s been the bassist for Ronald Shannon Jackson & Decoding Society, Defunkt, John Zorn, Sonny Sharrock, Marc Ribot, Rollins Band, and more. So it was surprising, on receipt of this CD, to realize that it’s the first released under his name. As his resume suggests, he’s unconstrained by genre boundaries, and Ancients Speak is a hyphenator’s paradise. There’s a fair amount of rapping, all of it socially and culturally conscious. The predominant musical flavors are Brazilian, but there are no mellow sambas here; rather, funky Carnival rhythms with a hip-hop edge. Or drum-n-bass/African rhythm hybrids blended with atmospheric keyboards reminiscent of Bitches Brew. High points for me are the three tracks with squiggly, skronky guitar courtesy of the legendary Pete Cosey (Chess Records sessionman, guitarist in Miles Davis’s densest '70s band), who shares space on one with P-Funk six-stringer Blackbyrd McKnight, who really cuts loose. I wish there were more of that; I wish I understood Portuguese. I wish Melvin Gibbs made albums more often. And I’ll damn sure be at his Celebrate Brooklyn gig at the Prospect Park bandshell (opening for Femi Kuti) on June 25 to hear how this stuff sounds when it can stretch out.
- Steve Holtje 06/02/09 >> go there
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