The sort of thing that feels significant even before you play it, a new album from Irreversible Entanglements is almost upon us. Open The Gates, out via International Anthem and Don Giovanni Records this Friday, is a thing of force, beauty, and nuance. The jazz here scorches the earth and reassures the soul that there are some musicians out there -- at least 5 -- who get it, who understand the mission of the genre, and are as committed to this as the pioneers were in the Sixties and Seventies.
The players here -- Camae Ayewa (Moor Mother) on vocals and synths, Keir Neuringer on saxophone, synths, and percussion, Aquiles Navarro on trumpet and synths, Luke Stewart on all basses, and Tcheser Holmes handling drums and percussion -- are uniformly superheroes of modern jazz. This is a herculean release, one which nearly single-handedly pours juice into the form itself. Thankfully, there's going to be a lot of young heads who hear this Open the Gates and then seek out older records from John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Albert Ayler, and others. That said, this album cooks on its own unique terms, of course.
While the title cut opens things with Ayewa's voice leading us forward, "Keys to Creation" anchors that with faint synths. Even as the trumpet blasts and drum rolls push us onwards, it's those synths that create a texture that allows these musicians to conjure. "Storm Came Twice" erupts at points in pure noise, but the more subtle "Water Meditation" progresses for more than 20 minutes over territories both serene and volatile. Rarely has a group attacked free jazz with this much gusto as of late. The final two cuts on Open the Gates then take this further into the stratosphere. "Six Sounds" and "The Port Remembers" bring the knowledge, letting this become more than jazz, and something akin to its own genre. Irreversible Entanglements have hit a new level of greatness here, with the total power of the compositions, and the playing, steering a listener into realms of awareness that no drug could provide.
Open The Gates is out on International Anthem and Don Giovanni Records this Friday.
[Photo: Bob Sweeney]