Matt Ulery: Mother Harp

With 15 albums of adventurous composition and daredevil artistry behind him, Chicago-based bassist-composer-bandleader Matt Ulery is, as they say back home, no slouch. And on his 16th, the raucously-inflamed and infectious Mother Harp, he follows his rock 'n' roll heart to the finish line and beyond.

Mother Harp is a bevy of crazy-good stuff packed with a punk-rock punch you do not hear authentically or authoritatively anymore anywhere these days. Today it all sounds categorical, as if AI had just learned "My Brain Hurts" or "Veronica Hates Me" by the toddling town's punk legends, The Screeching Weasels.

Ulery, trumpeter Russ Johnson, tenor saxophonist-clarinetist Artie Black, double-threat tenor saxophonist-guitarist Dustin Laurenzi and drummer Quin Kirchner make sure that Mother Harp rocks like very few jazz records do. The amped-up quintet crash the floodgates with "The Joy of a Good Gambol," a frantic, head-banging bopper that holds you in place until the feverishly-malleable "On Broilers" (wherein Ulery, in plain-speak, is cranking) head-butts with a horn attack that is as sharp as it is percussive. 

Though Ulery's writing leans strongly towards the active collective, "Five Points," "Bucking the Bull," "Wiper" and "The Ritz" all present themselves as horn trio vs. rock trio and the music is all the better for it. It is a shame that some of the more traditional listeners among us may pass this one by, perhaps thinking it too much of a melding. Energized and full of kick, Mother Harp is, colloquially speaking, a blast of fresh air. But to put it more modern terms, Mother Harp is a swift kick in the a—.