In 2022, producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist
Chris Bangs ended a 14-year recording hiatus when he teamed with keyboard ace
Mick Talbot for the stellar
Back to Business, an instrumental collection of groovers.
Bangs returned to the studio with top-shelf session players for
Firebird, a jazz-dance scorcher that ranges across his musical influences -- Afro-Latin and Brazilian rhythms, '70s salsa and uptempo jazz-funk, and fusion -- sequenced like a DJ set.
Bangs' cast includes guitarist
Nigel Price, pianist
Janette Mason, trumpeter
Dave Priseman, saxophonist
Simon Bates, vibraphonist
Roger Beaujolais, and bassist
Ernie McKone, among others.
Firebird reveals
Bangs' desire to create a clutch of classic-sounding jazz-dance tracks he might have spun during DJ sets. He applied the use of modern production techniques to retro sounds and rhythms to propel the music above nostalgic tropes. The opener "Samba Do Sueno" was composed by
Cal Tjader, one of two covers here. (
Tjader cut it first with
Eddie Palmieri on 1966's
Bamboleate and secondly on his own 1967 classic
Along Comes Cal.)
Price's guitar playing provides lyric flair and expansive harmonics to the twinning of vibes and son montuno piano above polyrhythmic Latin beats. The storming title cut is finger-popping post-bop fusion for dancers. Led by
Simon Jaffa Jeffries's soaring Moog,
Priseman adds flamenco-tinged trumpet lines and a rhythm collision of congas, timbales, bongos, and a drum kit, guided by
McKone's rippling basslines. "Dinamita" is a smoking exercise in salsa, inspired by the late-'70s Nuyorican version trademarked by the
Fania Allstars. While the multivalent layers of percussion make this one cook from the jump, it's
Priseman's multi-tracked, swinging trumpets that introduce
Mason's fiery montunos. While her left hand drives a rhythmic counterpoint, her right delivers vamps, accents, fills and a thematic center. "Ritmo Picante," another salsa stormer, finds
Mason's electric piano carrying the vamp. Reeds, winds, and brass -- arranged to recall
Tito Puente's classic horn section -- wrap around blistering rhythm tracks framing the melody. The single "Sambara" weds Latin-samba fusion and disco (think mid-'70s
Ray Barretto and
Azymuth). The interplay between
Julian Burdock's airy jazz guitars,
McKone's rumbling electric bass, and
Mary Carewe's wordless chorus vocals creates infectiously airy dance music. "Kitchen (Cosina)" was composed by Brazilian master drummer
Dom Um Romao for 1975's
Spirit of the Times.
Mason's Rhodes offers the lithe melody and strident harmonic vamp atop a jarring batucada rhythm complete with drums, bells, shouts, claps, and whistles. It's followed by the percolating Latinized soul-jazz fusion of "Circuit Break," driven by
Jaffa's meaty Hammond B-3,
Price's hip,
Phil Upchurch-esque guitar playing, and
Bates' roaring tenor sax battling for supremacy amid the rhythm chorus. Closer "Lifetimes" is seductively attractive fusion whose rich lyricism recalls the earliest version of
Chick Corea's
Return to Forever (with
Bill Connors,
Airto,
Flora Purim, and
Joe Farrell) meeting mid-period
Weather Report and the
Brecker Brothers in a studio. Ultimately,
Firebird is a masterful, propulsive journey for the dancefloor that is equally compelling to listen to on repeat. ~ Thom Jurek