Orlando le Fleming & Romantic Funk: Wandering Talk

Wandering Talk is the second part of a project from British bassist Orlando le Fleming which began with Romantic Funk: The Unfamiliar (Whirlwind, 2020). The album convincingly brings together the acoustic jazz tradition and the lush but muscular electric fusion which emerged in the 1980s. Not for nothing is one of le Fleming's heroes, paid tribute to on both albums, Wayne Shorter, a master of acoustic jazz and an architect of electric fusion.

Romantic Funk: The Unfamiliar was recorded with an American band in New York, where le Fleming was based for twenty years from the early 2000s, returning to Britain in 2023. To record Wandering Talk he put together a mainly British quintet with one holdover from the first album, trumpeter Philip Dizack, a lyrical player who deserves to be better known here in Britain. In addition to le Fleming, on upright and electric bass, the British contingent comprises alto saxophonist Nathaniel Facey, pianist and electric keyboards player Tom Cawley and drummer James Maddren, A-listers all. The closing track features le Fleming's daughter, Nadia le Fleming, and his old school friend, Coldplay's Chris Martin, voicing words by the Persian Sufi poet Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī.

There are tracks on Wandering Talk which tilt the acoustic/electric fusion balance firmly towards fusion. Check opening track "Don't Dwell On It" on the YouTube below. On others, such as "Garden Shearing Blues," the acoustic tradition predominates. On some tracks, most memorably on "Sense Of The Sacred," at 6:46 the longest, the balance is more or less equal: the first half features Dizack soloing over acoustic accompaniment, the second half Facey over electric keys and bass.

The sound on Wandering Talk frequently suggests a band larger than a quintet. In part this is down to Cawley's expansive electric keyboards—Rhodes MK8, Prophet 12, Oberheim OB-6. In part it sounds as though the horns are either multiple-overdubbed in unision, or electronically treated to give the same effect. The saxophone behind Dizack on the first half of "Sense Of The Sacred," for instance, suggests a saxophone section, while the trumpet behind Facey on the second half suggests a trumpet section. It is not important how it is done, only that it works well.

Seven of the eight tracks are le Fleming originals. The eighth is Wayne Shorter's "Plaza Real," first recorded by Weather Report for Procession (Columbia, 1983), and memorably covered by Wallace Roney on Home (HighNote, 2012). The production on Wandering Talk is simpler than that on either of those albums (Facey sits the track out), but is no less effective for that.

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