HAGANS/BELDEN
Re-Animation LIVE! (Blue Note)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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Producer/saxophonist Bob Belden has been a very busy man for the last decade. Along with his work as a re-issue producer for projects including the Miles Davis catalog, he's been the driving force behind a series of albums that have provided jazz interpretations of artists from a variety of approaches. Among those who have been re-imagined by Belden are Prince, Sting, Carole King and Puccini. That's a fair range.

Trumpeter Tim Hagan has been with Belden throughout those experiments, and along the way they've assembled the core group of players that appear on Re-Animation LIVE!, a recording of the first concert by the Hagans/Belden band featuring the groove based sounds they debuted on last year's Animation/Imagination. Those players include Scott Kinsey on synthesizers, David Dyson on electric bass, Billy Kilson on drums and turntablist DJ Kingsize. Together they've concocted a sound that carries echoes of post Bitches Brew Miles, but with level of technology and vision that simply weren't available to Davis' 70s groups.

It's not fusion, exactly, or trip-hop, precisely, or anything else I can really put an all encompassing label on. It's just cutting edge improvisational music that draws on a combination of precedent and foresight in a creatively exciting way. Rock energy levels are infected with bluesy emotion and processed through 21st century electronics. And yet I'm never left in doubt that it's first and foremost a jazz band.

It's often startling, always worthwhile and it may be where we'll all end up as soon as more of us catch up.

Track List:

Introduction * Animation/Imagination * Big Moment * Hud Doyle * Killer Instinct * 28 If * Dans La Ville Sombre * Are You Threatening Me? * Love's Lullaby * Trumpet Sandwich

© 2000 - Shaun Dale