Balafon Dance

Album Review

Khan Jamal's quintet celebrates the spirit of early-'60s progressive hard bop. The session opens with three tracks featuring spare, evocative lines that launch the soloists into intense flights. Jemeel Moondoc with his keening alto saxophone and Roy Campbell with his bruised, dark trumpet serve as fitting channels for Jamal's muse. The members of the front line have a long history of mutual associations, stretching back to the 1970s. The leader draws on two cohorts from Philadelphia in the rhythm section, bassist Dylan Taylor and drummer Dwight James. The drummer makes an especially noteworthy contribution to the date. Like a martial arts star, he executes slashing pirouettes over the bar lines, defying metric gravity until he alights precisely in the right place. This rhythmic daring is appropriate given Jamal's intent to bring the rhythmic concepts of Africa into his work. Jamal brings this to the fore on "Balafon Dance" and "African Rhythm Tongues," where he plays the balafon, an West African instrument similar to a marimba. Regardless of his instrument, Jamal is a striking soloist, mixing fire with logic. Jamal ends the session with a buoyant tribute to vibraphone pioneer Lionel Hampton. Jamal swings out happily echoing the vocabulary of an earlier age while remaining true to his own contemporary spirit.