Mike Clark: Kuon Ganjo

Not much is really new on veteran drummer Mike Clark's 2026 album, Kuon Ganjo (Time Without Beginning), which encompasses a series of nine hard-bop themes performed by Clark's able quintet. Having said that, the most reasonable question is, do they do it well? And the answer to that is an unequivocal yes.

Clark, who has been around the block more than a few times during his decades-long career as a jazz/funk timekeeper and is perhaps best known for his several-year alliance with pianist Herbie Hancock, has more than a dozen albums as leader under his belt and knows who can play—which is apparently why he chose trumpeter Eddie Henderson and tenor saxophonist Craig Handy to share front-line duties, backed by pianist Patrice Rushen, bassist Essiet Okon Essiet and himself.

Everyone has his (or her) hard-bop hat firmly in place and ready to rumble from the get-go, starting with Sonny Rollins' amiable "East Broadway Rundown" and continuing through the final passages of Wayne Shorter's lively "Beauty and the Beast." As to the others, when even Sigmund Romberg's normally placid "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise" sparks a fire, it is a sure bet there is some serious swinging rocking the premises.

Henderson is an adroit and dependable soloist, but no more so than Handy, while Rushen is a pleasant earful, enlivening the keyboard with warmth and awareness. Essiet crafts some persuasive statements of his own, especially when featured on Thelonious Monk's beguiling "Monk's Dream." The group is similarly animated on a quartet of original compositions: "Austin City Shuffle," "Eddy and Hyde," the fire-breathing "Lungs" and lyrical "Toys," the last written by Clark's former employer, the aforementioned Hancock.

There is one departure from the norm: Clark's dissonant and enigmatic "Kuon Ganjo," whose provenance lies in an outer realm of jazz, removed from the album's confines elsewhere. "Kuon Ganjo" is an anomaly whose appeal may be limited to listeners whose taste extends beyond hard-bop fare. When the quintet adheres to its cardinal purpose—which is most of the time—it delivers a series of sharp and impressive themes that are sure to satisfy anyone with an appetite for straight-on jazz that swings.