Jason Moran

• From the Dancehall to the Battlefield [Yes, 2023] A

Consumer Guide Reviews:

From the Dancehall to the Battlefield [Yes, 2023]
"Syncopation is about urgency, pushing the beat ahead to apply the anticapation of the oncoming downbeat, an outlook that is inherently futuristic" writes pianist-composer-entrepreneur Moran on what is fundamentally a through-composed tribute album to the Alabama-born Black bandleader-composer James Reese Europe, although Moran gives pretty much equal credit to fellow pianist Randy Weston, who died at 92 in 2018. Some of the 15 tracks have a pop tunefulness and/or groovefulness about them--"Darktown Strutters Ball" and "St Louis Blues" are classics most listeners will dimly recognize at least, "Memphis Blues" and "Ballin the Jack" kind of but not so much. But other passages cultivate an unkempt abstraction you'll enjoy more and more as you get used to how they presage a musical complexity Moran means to remind us is on its way. Europe died at 39, stabbed in the neck by a drummer he'd just taken to task. So be sure you go away humming the finale, called simply "For James." A