Mike Boone Friends and Family: Confirmation

Sometimes, a random listener intervenes to comment on music a reviewer is working on. "Who are those guys?" with a tone that means, "I should know this right?" Well, if you happen to be from Philadelphia, shame on you. This was some kind of party, maybe a party in a church, or as bassist Mike Boone comments, "a church in a party." Especially if you walk in on "Hymn," the idea that someone happened on a hip Sunday service is perfectly understandable. Except for the fact that it is followed by a forthright, unadorned and definitely swinging Maci Miller on "On the Sunny Side of the Street." That is not church music, but Boone and Byron Landham on drums make for a righteous stroll, no doubt. And then there's "Confirmation," the title track, both studio and live (pt. 1, 2), over 10 minutes of it.

Yes, that is Charlie Parker's tune, with a whole bunch of instrumentalists, and Boone channeling Jon Hendricks with Miller scatting alongside. The live version of "Confirmation" is unfair, because "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" is in the air, and the segue with Lee Mo makes a listener sing out the changes to the tune, more out of conviction than curiosity. And then, in recitation, is Ben Vereen on "Old Folks," followed by Omeed Nyman on trombone, about as soulful and plaintive as you could want after the boisterous "Confirmation." And then more: "Jesus Loves Me" with Brandon Young on piano.

If there is something of the air of a revival in "Confirmation," it is because Boone plainly intended just that. The title refers not only to Parker's tune. It is also Boone's musical affirmation of friends and family, and a lifetime of lived musical thinking (including a deep familiarity with classical bass) that Boone awakened to after a near-death experience. Confirmation has multiple meanings, one of them essentially sacramental, which explains the sanctified overtones of a raucous house party. When Boone says "a lot of things were happening" here, and in his life, he is and was not kidding. So someone ends up with an experience, unusual in itself, but far more than a simple recording. To get it, be alert. But that is a small price to pay for getting musical and spiritual batteries recharged in a playfully earnest undertaking.

The Russian composer Prokofiev once said that 'formalism' is music that people do not understand at first hearing. Well, here is hoping that the jazz police do not accuse Mike Boone of formalism. But if that be the case, make the most of it. And go to Philadelphia to find it.

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