Published on Nov 25, 1999
Jazz is an interesting animal to listen to. Even when it
transmogrifies into the weaker version known as new age, it can
often still move the listener in ways they never thought possible.
Without you even realizing it, you’ll find your foot tapping and
your head bobbing in beat with the music.
In the case of bassist Victor Bailey, he seems to walk the line
between hard-core jazz and new age on his release
Low Blow. By summoning the ghost of Jaco Pastorius, he pays
tribute to some of the names who made jazz more mainstream in the
’70s, all the while challenging the listener with a combination of
smoother, new age-sounding songs with some good old fashioned
be-bop. It takes a little bit of adjusting to get used to, but
Bailey wins you over in the end, as if this was his plan all
along.
Bailey’s tribute to Pastorius and the late bassist’s former
group Weather Report, “Do You Know Me / Continuum,” is the only
vocal track on
Low Blow – and it reminds me the most of some of Frank
Zappa’s work. Occasionally, Zappa would go into an unstructured
vocal where the guitar line would mimic exactly what Zappa was
singing. The same goes for Bailey and his bass line on this track –
and it’s an amazing effect no matter whose vocal you’re listening
to. Pastorius should be smiling somewhere about this song. (It’s
interesting to note that “Continuum” is actually a Pastorius
composition that Bailey has adapted and transcribed – further
serving as testimony to Pastorius’s unheralded genius on the bass
guitar.)
But Bailey seems to be a restless musical soul on
Low Blow. One minute, he’s laying out a nice, smooth rhythm
as on the title track; the next minute, he’s got you working
through a glorious beat as on “Grahan Cracker”; the next, he’s
running you through a powerful ballad like “She Left Me”. The
constant switching of gears might turn some people off, but I’d
rather look at it as Bailey’s challenging the listener to keep up
with him. In the end, it’s kind of an interesting race to run.
Not everything works quite as well, though. Tracks like “Sweet
Tooth” and “Knee-Jerk Reaction” are decent enough tracks, but they
just don’t seem to be cut from the same mold as the exceptional
songs on
Low Blow came from. This isn’t to say that these tracks
aren’t worth your time; indeed, the whole album is one you’ll want
to curl up in front of the fire with. But there is a difference in
the two levels of tracks, and you’ll be able to notice when the
momentum is shifting.
Bailey’s backing band is a powerful assembly of some of the
genre’s best musicians, including drummer Omar Hakim and
saxophonists Bill Evans and Kenny Garrett. It’s interesting to note
that Bailey often steps back into the shadows and lets the other
members of the band bask in the spotlight, though he allows enough
time to highlight his own talents on the bass.
Low Blow is the kind of disc that could win over a lot of
people to the world of jazz, and Bailey skillfully eases people
from the more friendly “smooth” jazz to something with a little
more bite – and back again. It’s an enjoyable disc that is well
worth checking out.