Following his appearance as part of Tha Brotherhood on "Cape Town" on Angel Bat Dawid's masterpiece The Oracle in 2019, drummer and band-leader Asher Gamedze has been busy on his own terms. His new epic-length record, Turbulence and Pulse will be out on International Anthem on Friday, and it's worth me raving about it a bit.
Early single "Sometimes I Think to Myself" suggested a kind of free jazz concert, with a multitude of players purusing a flurry of ideas. Julian "Deacon" Otis on vocals here brings this number a certain force, and the track does stand as a good taster for the breadth of Turbulence and Pulse. "Can't See the Sun" serves as a good showcase for the sax of Buddy Wells, flashes of mid-Sixties Coltrane abounding here, while "Locomotion" swings thanks to the bass of Thembinkosi Mavimbela. Robin Fassie's trumpet here does bring to mind Lee Morgan's stylings, but that bass is the pulsing heartbeat of this up-tempo number. The longer "Wynter Time" finds the same four players stretching out into territory that's more languid, their explorations moving forward from the beats and thumps of leader Asher Gamedze on the drums.
A clutch of live cuts recorded in Cairo buttress the appeal of this release, providing another flavor on numbers like the funky "Out Stepped Zim" due to synths from Maurice Louca. These live selections are nearly as good as the main tracks on Turbulence and Pulse, adding a loose vibe that sits nicely as a counterpart to the fury and passion of the rest of the album proper. Asher Gamedze favors a semi-conventional approach, with the quartet-based compositions that make up the heart of his album deserving of the highest praise. There's a power here that's hard bop, but Gamedze is an explorer, and his compositions echo those of a post-A Love Supreme Coltrane, while retaining the concise strengths of anything Blakey lead his players through. All that is a way to say that Turbulence and Pulse is very highly recommended.
Turbulence and Pulse by Asher Gamedze is out on International Anthem this week.
[Photo: Dylan Valley]