Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Fly: Year of the Snake

4

Fly: Year of the Snake

By

View read count
Track review of "Kingston"

Fly: Year of the Snake
While there are numerous jazz trios, few leave a lasting impression. This is not the case for Fly, consisting of younger but fully established jazz artists— saxophonist extraordinaire Mark Turner and his equally talented cohorts, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard.

At just over ten minutes, the episodic "Kingston," from the trio's sophomore ECM release, Year of the Snake , encapsulates rousing composition and exhilarating improvisation. What begins tentatively, with inquisitive probing—elongated unison lines and gentle militaristic drums taps—evolves into a powerfully funky groove with an elastic tenor solo moving like a cobra as the bass and drums provide the knotty backbone.

But it's at the seven-and-half-minute mark where things get really interesting. A new theme emerges at the break where Grenadier bowed ostinato leads the music into a cyclonic free for all. Turner repeats the pattern in unison, and then parses it into new directions with his usual display of dexterity and rich tonality, as Ballard provides cymbal showers until the initial theme is reintroduced. "Kingston" is momentous, and represents a fine example of the trio's prowess and its ability to reinvent itself.

Track Listing

Personnel

FLY
band / ensemble / orchestra

Mark Turner: tenor saxophone; Larry Grenadier: double bass; Jeff Ballard: drums.

Album information

Title: Year of the Snake | Year Released: 2012 | Record Label: ECM Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante
All In Motion
Dave Redmond
Cat & The Hounds
Colin Hancock's Jazz Hounds Featuring Catherine...

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.