Simply awesome, incredible and irresistible! If you want the dance grooves of remixes by Osunlade, Joe Claussell, Ron Trent or Masters At Work combined with fierce percussion we haven’t heard since Candido and the spirituality of Alice Coltrane’s records plus the hipness of a Spiritual Life record all thrown together in an album that takes you on a real musical journey through jazz and world music’s intersection then look no further than Speak In Tones and their double album Subaro.
Subaro means “evening conversation” in the West-African Bambara dialect of Mali. And the band’s name derive from the saying “speak in tones baby!” when a new comer arrives on the band wagon. Speak In Tones was also the name of a concert and jam session series Mike Ellis founded with Daniel Moreno (you may know him from various Spiritual Life releases or from his collaboration with Roy Hargrove for the RH Factor on Hard Groove and the Strength EP) at 56 Walker in Tribeca/Manhattan/NYC.
With 21 musicians (you can find more infos about some of them by clicking on the links listed below) contributing to this splendid double album and the use of such diverse instruments as tamburas, tablas, whistles, udus, pandeiros, marimbaus, flutes, saxes, djembes, guitars, trumpets etc Speak In Tones represents a modern big band. The concept of Speak In Tones is to have no concept but to let the creative juices flow and go back to what jazz music is really about: improvisation and having fun with your fellow musicians.
The result transcends musical borders and fuses jazz, free jazz, brazilian music, world music, afro or whatever you may call it into a unique sound. And it’s this improvisation factor that gives Speak In Tones a hypnotic sound. Imagine a voodoo session in your home without sacrificed animals and a repetitive yet fascinating groove that not only pleases the orishas but your very own body, mind and soul and that lets you fall into a trance. The epic Bahia By Night, Subaro Part II or Trilogia Nordestina are good examples of this kind of groove.
While the first disc is more on the uptempo side the second disc start things a little bit slower and offers a relaxing, chilling sound (similiar to what Bah Samba did with their 4 album). Ayahuasca (btw the name of a strong Amazonian hallucinogen) finds Daniel Moreno on the udu (meaning “clay pot” in the Ibo language) in great interaction with Antoine Roney on tenor sax.
Interesting is the story behind Lamento, meaning Lament, which is inspired by not based on the John Coltrane composition Lonnie’s Lament, which Antoine Roney and Daniel Moreno were discussing prior to this recording. Lamento features an impressive sax solo by Antoine with only sparse percussion by Daniel.
With 21 songs on offer and nearly two and a half hour of music with not one bad track, it’s hard to recommend a particular song, but you may have guessed it from the review so far, that Subaro works best being played from start to finish.
Subaro is already one of my favourite albums of the year and with its timeless quality will certainly stay a favourite for a long time.
Tracklisting of Subaro:
Disc 1: 1. Douson Foly/ 2. Bahia by Night/ 3. Subaro Part 1/ 4. Subaro Part 2/ 5. Umkathi/ 6. Los Indios/ 7. Trilogia Nordestina part 1/ 8. Trilogia Nordestina part 2/ 9. Trilogia Nordestina part 3/ 10. Ilha do Tarturuga/ 11. Elements
Disc 2: 1. Deusa do Ebona/ 2. Ayahuasca/ 3. Douson Foly take 2/ 4. Mali Overdrive/ 5. Oracao/ 6. Samba Low Rider/ 7. Jacare/ 8. Speak in Tones/ 9. Lamento/ 10. Boca do Rio
released 2005 by Alpha Pocket Records
For more infos visit speakintones.com, alphapocket.com, danielmoreno.com, mikeellismusic.com, cheick-tidiane-seck.com, m-base.com/g_haynes.html, bourelly.com, dreamboxmedia.com, free.freespeech.org/birareis, metarecords.com/adam.html, and cdbaby.com.
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