Donny McCaslin: Perpetual Motion (2010)

C. MICHAEL BAILEY,

C. Michael Bailey

Senior Contributor since 1997

...wants to know if Gene Harris is playing "Summertime" in Heaven...

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Published: January 19, 2011

Track review of "Firefly"

Donny McCaslin's Perpetual Motion is an embarrassment of riches, employing a lineup populated by the edgiest, most progressive-thinking jazz musicians currently composing. Alto saxophonist David Binney David Binney
b.1961
saxophone (who also produces the disc), pianist Uri Caine Uri Caine
b.1956
piano , bassist Tim Lefebvre Tim Lefebvre
and drummer Antonio Sanchez Antonio Sanchez
b.1971
drums have been producing music that has positively expanded jazz music for the past decade. McCaslin has made good company with these artists since hitting his stride on Declaration (Sunnyside, 2009) and Recommended Tools (Greenleaf Music, 2008), and here, this group of musicians are charting jazz's course.

McCaslin's gentle ballad, "Firefly," reveals an amorphous and spiritual direction that draws its soul from Wayne Shorter Wayne Shorter
b.1933
saxophone and the second great Miles Davis Miles Davis
1926 - 1991
trumpet quintet. The piece is introduced by bassist Lefebvre, whose volume-modulated playing recalls Bill Frisell Bill Frisell
b.1951
guitar . McCaslin enters plaintively, charting a course of freedom that is assimilated by Sanchez, and Adam Benjamin—whose Fender Rhodes interlude informs a new generation of Miles Davis, pushing the envelope with Chick Corea Chick Corea
b.1941
piano during the Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1970) period. McCaslin is soulful throughout this lengthy piece, reaching is R&B best in the coda—very slick and imaginative music.