Walace Roney

Upon first listen to trumpeter Wallace Roney's Mystikal one might be inclined to marginalize it as yet another attempt to re-create '70s-era Miles Davis. This would be a mistake. While Roney has always owed a large debt to the iconic jazz innovator – he even played with Davis on a concert released as Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux – Mystikal is a modern album made up of vintage parts. Which is to say that while Roney has deep affection for the sounds of '60s jazz and '70s funk and fusion, he is a resolutely forward-thinking musician who borrows from a variety of sources and time periods even when the overall sound is funky.

Wallace Roney's No Room for Argument is about "heritage, mentors, wisdom, responsibility, and spirituality." This CD is packed with excellent straight-ahead, avant-garde, and free jazz that also features samples from speeches given by Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and audio by Deepak Chopra. Roney's evolved, imaginative use of his muted trumpet to achieve the meditative and philosophical concepts inherent in the opener "No Room for Argument" is accomplished effectively. Roney weaves its sound into the well-known orations delivered by King and Malcolm X, giving each note a new design that offers his solution to the challenges of performing respected works in a new medium. His mentor piece, an arrangement and direction of "Homage & Acknowledgement," a vital rework featuring the duality of the great Buster Williams at work on the bassline for John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme"…

Wallace Roney - Obsession (1991) {Muse MCD5423}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 290 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 101 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 39 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1991 Muse Records | MCD5423
Jazz / Post-Bop / Straight-Ahead Jazz / Trumpet

In the early days of his career, trumpeter Wallace Roney was tagged as being yet another Miles Davis-influenced player, though a focused hearing of his fourth CD as a leader will demonstrate how much he was developing his own voice on this exciting hard bop session with tenor saxophonist Gary Thomas, pianist Donald Brown (like the leader, an alum of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers), bassist Christian McBride, and drummer Cindy Blackman. Roney's furious "Obsession" crackles with energy, showcasing the trumpeter, Thomas, and Brown. McBride contributed the loping, bluesy "Black Moon," while Blackman's "Scenario One" is full of twists, dominated by her drums.

Wallace Roney's No Room for Argument is about "heritage, mentors, wisdom, responsibility, and spirituality." This CD is packed with excellent straight-ahead, avant-garde, and free jazz that also features samples from speeches given by Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and audio by Deepak Chopra. Roney's evolved, imaginative use of his muted trumpet to achieve the meditative and philosophical concepts inherent in the opener "No Room for Argument" is accomplished effectively. Roney weaves its sound into the well-known orations delivered by King and Malcolm X, giving each note a new design that offers his solution to the challenges of performing respected works in a new medium. His mentor piece, an arrangement and direction of "Homage & Acknowledgement," a vital rework featuring the duality of the great Buster Williams at work on the bassline for John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme"…

With his second CD for Warner Bros., Wallace Roney began to break free of the frequent claim that he was overly imitating Miles Davis. With an exciting quintet including brother Antoine Roney on trumpet, pianist Carlos McKinney, bassist Clarence Seay, and drummer Eric Allen, the trumpeter encouraged his band to contribute pieces for this recording; the sideman are responsible for six of the ten pieces, and the performances indicate this is a true band and not just a showboat leader with a supporting cast. Antoine's tense, post-bop cooker "Spyra" is an excellent opener, with provocative solos and terrific ensemble work, while Seay's dark "High Stakes" is an eerie bossa nova with an explosive solo by the leader…

The Philadelphia-born trumpeter-bandleader Wallace Roney has been a significant force on the jazz scene from the age 16. With twenty one recordings as a leader, and some impressive work with McCoy Tyner, Dizzy Gillespie, Elvin Jones, Chick Corea, and as the protegé of Miles Davis. Roney has secured his place in jazz history as a member of VSOP. This new CD, features Roney as the mentor and guiding light of a quicksilver group of the Next Generation Jazz Artists: Emilio Modeste (saxes), Oscar Williams II (piano), Paul Cuffari (bass) and Kojo Odu Roney (drums).

This is really two albums in one, with a clear line of demarcation between two concepts. Roney says that he wanted to "incorporate African rhythms with a Nefertiti approach" on the whole CD, but Nefertiti easily overwhelms, even obliterates, the African element up until track six ("Village"), where Steve Berrios' percussion and Robert Irving III's synthesizers kick in. Now the music becomes more interesting, sometimes following the direction of Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi Sextet - and the last four tracks are appropriately linked to one another by Berrios' interludes. The best track, "EBO," has a great theme, an amalgam of Kind of Blue, Filles de Kilimanjaro and Gil Evans, with Chick Corea's Fender Rhodes electric piano complementing Geri Allen's acoustic piano…