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| Forq's 'Big Party' (GroundUP) "Weird is at the forefront of what we do in Forq, " says the keyboardist and composer Henry Hey, breaking into a laugh. "We play groove-based improvised music. I don't really think of it as 'fusion, ' unless we're talking about fusing Ennio Morricone with gameshow music from the '70s, classic video-game soundtracks and D'Angelo." Think of Big Party, Forq's new GroundUP Music release, as a late-night musical walk along the coolest, funkiest, strangest, most David Lynch-ian beach town boardwalk. Or imagine it as an especially surreal channel-surf that extends into the wee hours, on an old Magnavox console TV that can somehow beam in all manner of high and low culture. It's equally funny and trippy, fun yet oblique. It's a really good party, as experienced in a dream. "We go for sounds that are darker, where somebody might say, what is that? And it makes me very happy to have things feel that way, " says Hey, whose c.v. includes intimate late-career collaboration with David Bowie. At the same time, Hey explains, "I love melody and I love hooky bits. So I want to keep those in there, and not make things so obtuse harmonically that you lose people. My sense of 'weird' is more sonic." Big Party also upholds Forq's steadfast faith in the power of the almighty groove. "I always want to have the feeling of asses shaking in this music, " says Hey. "And if it doesn't feel like that to me, I don't actually want to play it in this band." No matter how far out the ambient and textural inspirations get — from the Ray Conniff Singers to Edd Kalehoff's music for The Price Is Right to the old-school arcade favorite Dig Dug — a bedrock of funk history bolsters the jams. Think of James Brown, Sly Stone, essential Quincy Jones productions like Michael Jackson's Off the Wall, early Busta Rhymes, Tribe and the pioneering neo-soul of Meshell Ndegeocello. Pulling off this uniquely vibrant meld is a challenge, no doubt. Fortunately, Forq comprises some of the finest improvisers and groove players on the planet. On Big Party, Forq consists of Hey along with his musical confidant Chris McQueen, best known as a guitarist in Snarky Puppy; bassist Kevin Scott, of Gov't Mule; and Snarky drummer Jason "JT" Thomas. In addition to those longer-serving Forq players are guitarists Ryan Scott and Jordan Peters, bassists James Genus, Chris Morrissey and Eli Menezes, and drummer Josh Dion. Hey composed and arranged the music on Big Party, with vital contributions from his cohort Chris McQueen and from Ryan Scott, a guitarist and singer-songwriter whose next-level chops are rooted in the deepest blues. "In choosing musicians, number one with me is spirit, " Hey says. "Are they having fun? Are they contributing? I despise the idea of musical mercenaries. All these musicians are lovely people, they're super creative, and they're not stuck in one thing." They're also strikingly accomplished. To give but one example, Genus is among the very best electric bassists in the history of that instrument, whose regular gigs include Herbie Hancock and the Saturday Night Live Band. Genus' punchy, nimble bassline helps define the opener, "Into Bright, " a disco-fied cut with sunshiney synth and Hey on transistor organ; his solo is given a seasick warble that provides a delightfully demented contrast to the dance-floor feel. "Bomp" comes off like contemporary Latin pop music passed through the filters of Zappa and the Downtown scene. "Maybe it's called 'BOMP' because it's a bop but with more weight?" Hey wonders. Thomas solos like thunder over a section of near-Sabbath heaviness. "Big 3!" finds the space between the jam-jazz of the John Scofield Band and instrumental indie-rock, before "Dirt Cake" takes '70s sitcom-theme goodness to the outer limits of modern jazz-rooted musicianship. Similarly, "The Grotto" brings indisputable chops to a hazy, boozy atmosphere of lounge exotica; think Connery-era Bond, directed by Fellini. "Kick the Curb" is classic soul-jazz as heard in the midway of the state fair you grew up going to every summer. "Song for Jim, " a tribute to the late pianist and producer Jim Beard, isn't a tearjerker, though it is intensely poignant: It can be heard as a kind of furtherance of the funky jazz-rock sound that Beard helped invent as a visionary producer for guitarist Mike Stern, saxophonists Bill Evans and Bob Berg and others. "He was a tremendous influence on my music and writing, " Hey explains. "He once said to me, 'The producer is somebody who helps to realize the artist's vision.' And when you think about it that way, if you're always in service of what the artist should need, then that applies to your own records too. So if I'm the producer of Forq, then I have to say, 'Is it about me? No, it's really about the whole concept. What does the band, what does this record need?'" With regard to "Echo, " Big Party needed a deeply affecting, beautifully melodic ballad — as well as, in Jordan Peters' slide playing, one of the great guitar performances of the year. (Between McQueen, Scott and Peters' efforts, Big Party is a jaw-dropping guitar album.) At the finale, "Va!" takes Brazilian Carnival to West Africa. Or, as Hey puts it, "Sérgio Mendes meets Ray Conniff meets Salif Keita and transistor organ. Enjoy the humorous madness." As usual with Forq, the recording is just the beginning. On stage this summer and fall, these tunes will be taken into the stratosphere nightly. "A lot of people tell me, 'The records are cool, ' but they really love the band live, " Hey says. "Because we tend to blast off." write your comments about the article :: © 2024 Jazz News :: home page |