The E-Collective

Terence Blanchard, The E-Collective – Live (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:15:50 minutes | 1,61 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Blue Note Records

USA Fellow and five-time Grammy-winning trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard has been a consistent artistic force for making powerful musical statements concerning painful American tragedies – past and present. With his band The E-Collective he addresses the staggering cyclical epidemic of gun violence in America with his new album “Live” – 7 powerful songs recorded in concert that both reflect the bitter frustration of the conscious masses while also providing a balm of emotional healing. With a title that carries a pointed double meaning, the album is an impassioned continuation of the band’s GRAMMY-nominated 2015 studio recording, “Breathless”…

The music of Live was symbolically culled from concerts performed at venues in three communities that have experienced escalating conflicts between law enforcement and African American citizens: The Dakota in Minneapolis (near where Philando Castile was pulled over and shot by a cop on July 6, 2016); The Bop Stop in Cleveland (near where 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot by police on November 22, 2014); and the Wyly Theatre in Dallas (near where police officers Lorne Ahrens, Michael Krol, Michael Smith, Brent Thompson and Patricio Zamarripa were assassinated while on duty covering a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest on July 7-8, 2016). The E-Collective’s Live project condemns gun violence of all manner whether against profiled citizens of color or targeted members of law enforcement.

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Terence Blanchard feat. The E-Collective – Breathless (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:18:03 minutes | 1,56 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Blue Note Records

Terence Blanchard’s 2013 return to Blue Note, Magnetic, built upon his decades-long history of post-bop dynamism with a forward-thinking approach that blended edgy, modal improvisation with a sophisticated, genre-crossing compositional style. It was a concept he had been investigating on his previous efforts Bounce (2003), Flow (2005), and Choices (2009), and, though it had been years since Blanchard was considered a young lion, the eclecticism of the album matched the work of many of his younger contemporaries like trumpeter Christian Scott and pianist Robert Glasper, the latter of whom even played on Bounce. In keeping with this boundary-pushing trajectory, Blanchard’s follow-up, 2015’s Breathless, finds the New Orleans native jumping wholeheartedly into a funky stew of R&B, hip-hop, and fusion-influenced jazz. Blanchard is joined here by his band the E-Collective, an adroit group of young players centered around gifted keyboardist Fabian Almazan, the only carry-over from the Magnetic sessions. Along with Almazan, the E-Collective features Charles Altura (guitar), Donald Ramsey (bass), and Oscar Seaton (drums). Also showcased throughout is vocalist PJ Morton, who has released his own R&B- and contemporary gospel-infused albums and toured as a keyboardist with the pop group Maroon 5. Ambitious, adventurous, and steeped in the kind of sticky, psychedelic jazz-funk pioneered by trumpeter Miles Davis in the ’70s, Breathless is Blanchard’s most electrified album to date. While Blanchard has long drawn comparisons to Davis, they’ve mostly referenced the iconic trumpeter’s classic quintet sides from the late ’60s and not his effects-drenched fusion period. Similarly, while on previous efforts Blanchard has flirted with an electronic sound, he’s never gone this far in a contemporary jazz direction. Here we get a very ’90s hip-hop/jazz-infused reworking of Les McCann’s classic 1969 socio-political anthem “Compared to What,” several languid, new agey spoken word pieces with Morton, and some expansive, groove-oriented cuts like the bluesy midtempo “See Me as I Am” that allow for plenty of spaced-out solos. Also intriguing are Morton’s several slow jam vocal numbers, including an inspired cover of Hank Williams’ “I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But Time,’ which replaces the country legend’s cowboy twang and fiddles with sweeping, Stevie Wonder-esque orchestral synth backgrounds. Also compelling is the languid, dreamy ballad “Everglades,” which impossibly balances Debussy-influenced impressionism with angular, synthy, ’80s electro-funk. Ultimately, while Breathless is a break from the aggressive, acoustic swing that has marked much of Blanchard’s career, it nonetheless retains all the jaw-dropping artistry and soulful creativity we have come to expect, albeit delivered in a vibrant, electric style. –Matt Collar

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