Moppa Elliott's Acceleration Due To Gravity: Jonesville

Whatever 'script renegade bassist/composer Moppa Elliott takes on a daily basis, he should be made to share with the rest of the world. Whatever that tonic, whatever that pill, whatever that gumbo scented elixir is, let us have it now.

Elliot may not want to open up his private stash to the public, but he sure knows how to let it fly in the music he and his nonet—Acceleration Due to Gravity—put forth on the rightly raucous and rollicking Jonesville. A wild treatise on the muse of bassist Sam Jones (1924-1981), Oscar Peterson, Cedar Walton and Cannonball Adderley, Jonesville proves a true celebration of the purely creative.

The brief and wild "Choice" cracks the air open. The slurry "Delaware Water Gap" shouts out Stacy Dillards growling tenor, a plunger mute in hand. "Miami Drag" comes from Jones' jump blues days on the chitlin' circuit and this swaggering, extra bold, brash and brassy read will go down the ages as the version future scholars listen to and learn from. "Unity" is a mad scramble, proving that no one squeezes more chaos into a just-under- three-minute fusillade than Elliot.

Any more proof that Jonesville is, at heart, a great party record comes via the hard swinging, hard punching "Cedar Run." A highlight reel for all involved, Bobby Spellman's happy jumping trumpet leads the charge. Drummer Mike Pride muscles things his way. Kyle Saulnier's actively carnivorous baritone sax blows in roaring, and the band can barely be contained. The sail and salsa of "Stack of Dollars," another Jones composition, starts off calmly enough before Matt Nelson's psychotic alto sax rips the juke joint air. With brazen, distorted slashes characterizing her angular, subversive approach, electric guitarist Ava Mendoza cuts in and cuts of the whole while pianist George Burton provides the all-out boogie-woogie. Make Jonesville a destination.

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