Anthem of Unity
is guitarist
Joel Harrison
's 25th outing as a leader. His catalog reflects a kaleidoscopic approach to writing and arranging that employs variety in concept, genre, and harmonic and rhythmic invention. The three-volume
Free Country
series (that began in 2003) showcases covers and originals associated with country and Americana music. 2019's
Still Point - Turning World
offered a simultaneous exploration of spiritual jazz, Indian Carnatic music, free improv, and post-bop. 2020's
America at War
was a musical mediation on militarism and national identity that wed rock, jazz, funk, and improvisation. 2022's
Joel Harrison & the Stardust Reunion Band
contained a program of original rock and R&B songs delivered by various singers. While
bears
Harrison
's unmistakable playing signature, the music is, in essence, a blowing session showcasing a stellar quartet working across post-bop, soul jazz, funk hard bop, and blues.
's sidemen include drummer
Jack DeJohnette
, saxophonist/flutist
Greg Tardy
, and
Gary Versace
on Hammond B-3.
The title track opener was inspired by a late mentor, guitarist
Mick Goodrick
(who also worked with
DeJohnette
). Composed the day before the session, the tune's architecture weds a NOLA second-line organ and drum groove that crisscrosses gospel.
Tardy
joins
in melodic interplay and, chorus by chorus, it becomes joyfully, poignantly transcendent. "Survival Instinct" is noirish post-bop with a knotty, blue-tinged head and dazzling backbeat work from
. There are two standards included in the track list:
Bob Dylan
's "The Times They Are A-Changin" is rendered in skittering waltz time as
and
harmonize the melody with grace and subtlety.
Sonny Rollins
' "Doxy" is delivered with a layer of easy, gritty NOLA jazz-funk, (think
the Meters
with
Alvin "Red" Tyler
joining on tenor sax).
's solo is all lue funk, and his greasy interplay with
is as canny as it is welcoming. "Today Is Tomorrow's Yesterday" is a fleet, knotty post-bop groover with killer solos from
Versace
. The first minute and a half of "Parvati" is a furious drum solo before
's composition weds Carnatic modalism to Americana and swinging post-bop. The interlocked engagement by
,
is outlined and given heady rhythmic ballast by
's frenetic playing. "Migratory Birds" features
on flute hovering over wafting, proggish organ; sparse, nocturnal guitar lines; and propulsive, dynamically controlled beats. Closer "Mohawk Valley Peace Dance" is a funky, rock-based stroller that sounds like
Booker T & the MG's
meeting
War
as a riffing B-3's joins reverbed, psychedelic, wah-wah guitars atop
's souled-out, wildly exploratory saxophone and
's bluesy, funky vamps. While "groove" and feel are central to all eight tunes on
, rhythmic and harmonic invention in the group's interplay add heft, hooks, textual dimension, and balance. ~ Thom Jurek