How do you reconcile a harmonically basic, rhythmically upside-down idiom like
Bob Marley's
reggae with the
bop-derived environment in which pianist
Monty Alexander usually works? Indeed,
Alexander prefers not to choose, gambling audaciously by combining a six-piece Jamaican
reggae rhythm section,
the Gumption Band, with a three-piece
jazz rhythm team. That makes for an interesting tussle; one rhythm section surges in front of the other and vice versa in a constant battle for supremacy (
the Gumption Band usually comes off as the more dominant force). Sometimes
Monty is limited to just a single right-hand line (
"Is This Love?"); a '90s equivalent of those '60s albums where mainstream bopsters restrained themselves trying to cover Top 40 tunes. Not until
"Stir It Up," which sounds a bit like
Ahmad Jamal getting into the
reggae groove, does
Monty at last sound like a melodically free man.
"No Woman, No Cry" ignites midway with a good fusion of a pure
reggae groove and some harmonically advanced
jazz,
"So Ja Sah" has a swinging union of the two sections that also respects
Marley's unusual rhythmic concept, and there is a hot remix of
"Could You Be Loved" as a bonus track (with master drummer
Sly Dunbar). Guest trombonist
Steve Turre seems right at home with the
reggae gait on
"Running Away" and gets a straight-ahead
bop solo in a slightly frenetic
"I Shot the Sheriff." There isn't any doubt that
Alexander loves
Marley's music -- listen to his simple, touching
Marley elegy
"Nesta (He Touched the Sky)" -- yet this attempt to pay homage only comes together in patches. ~ Richard S. Ginell
