Going Responsive

Elvin Jones - Going Home (1993) {Enja ENJ-7095 2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 417 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 140 Mb
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© 1993 Enja Records | ENJ-7095 2
Jazz / Post Bop / Drums

On Elvin Jones' third Enja CD of the 1990s, the legendary drummer continues with the same formula used on his previous recording, Youngblood, with one exception. Jones adds the veteran Chicago pianist Willie Pickens to a group of younger players – trumpeter Nicholas Payton, saxophonists Javon Jackson and Ravi Coltrane, flutist Kent Jordan, and bassist Brad Jones – as they perform a program of standards and originals powered by Jones' always dynamic drumming.

Takehiro Honda - What's Going On (1971) {Solid Japan Cardboard Sleeve CDSOL-1482 rel 2012}
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© 1971, 2012 Trio Records / Solid Records Japan | CDSOL-1482
Jazz / Jazz Funk / Soul Jazz / Groove

Recorded in the U.S. with arranger Teddy Adams, What's Going On embraces in full the American influences that shape it – the polemical R&B of James Brown and Marvin Gaye looms heavy via covers of "Ain't It Funky Now" and the title cut, while the sound and sensibility clearly draw from West coast soul-jazz innovators like Les McCann and Gerald Wilson. But the curiosity and estrangement inherent in the album's stranger-in-a-strange-land origins are in fact its dominant element: Takehiro Honda doesn't simply channel his myriad influences, he also dissects them, taking them apart and putting them back together to understand how they work. The result is a wonderfully eccentric and heartfelt interpretation of American funk rendered in distinctly Japanese terms – studious but a bit goofy, formal yet passionately groovy.