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CD Review
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New York Times, CD Review >>
The myriad sounds on “Ancients Speak” (LiveWired Music), a boisterous new album by the bassist and programmer Melvin Gibbs, uniformly attest to an African continuum. But their origins are in Salvador da Bahia, or Havana, or Brooklyn — places of noise and convergence. Mr. Gibbs began the album as a field project, recording singers and percussionists in Brazil with help from the producer Arto Lindsay. Then he reconstituted those recordings with a group he calls the Elevated Entity, mixing in parts for improvisers, including the guitarists Pete Cosey and Blackbyrd McKnight.
A couple of the album’s most bluntly arresting tracks — “Represent do Rio,” featuring the rapper BNegão, and “Macumba,” with a growling chant by Totonho — convey a thrilling sense of cultural collision. Others, like “Canto por Odudua” and “Sun of Shango,” reach for murkier and more mysterious fusions. Either approach suits Mr. Gibbs handily. 03/29/09 >> go there
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