On Banjo

Album review

It's hard to overstate the excitement five-string banjo master Alison Brown generated with Simple Pleasures, her debut album in 1990, and its 1992 follow-up, Twilight Motel. Though she'd established a reputation for virtuoso musicianship with Alison Kraus' Union Station over several years, these albums revealed a stylistic innovator on an instrument whose primary players were male. In addition to bluegrass and folk, Brown is equally proficient in jazz, Latin, blues, classical music, and global genres. On Banjo is her seventh album and first since 2015's wonderful Song of the Banjo. With her longstanding quintet and special guests, she delivers an uncharacteristic, all-instrumental date that amounts to a musical autobiography. Opener "Wind the Clock" pays homage to John Hartford -- particularly his "Gentle on My Mind." Brown enlists a string quartet as she winds bluegrass chops inside a jazzy harmonic progression. Clarinetist Anat Cohen joins for "Choro Nuff," a melodic and rhythmic reinvention of the 19th century Brazilian instrumental folk form. The interplay between principals is dazzling as they crisscross Brazilian and Latin jazz as the rhythm section syncopates. Brown knew she wanted to play banjo after hearing Flatt & Scruggs' "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" at age ten. Here, she and banjoist/writer/comedian Steve Martin offer "Foggy Morning Breaking," a flowing celebration of bluegrass and mountain music. Brown plays in the left channel, Martin in the right. They dovetail and underscore one another in unison and call-and-response with quietly dazzling chops. The tune is given additional wings by mandolinist Sierra Hull, fiddler Stuart Duncan, guitarist Chris Etheridge, and bassist Todd Phillips. Speaking of Hull, she and Brown offer a striking, fleet-fingered, intricately detailed duet in "Sweet Sixteenths," wherein Hull uses every note on her instrument's first string. "Sun and Water" is Brown's visionary medley of George Harrison's "Here Comes the Sun" and Antonio Carlos Jobim's fingerpopping samba "Águas de Março" ("Waters of March"). She gets assistance from flute, piano, Hammond B-3, and percussion. Brown effortlessly binds one melody to another amid rhythmic invention from two percussionists and her bassist, husband, and producer Garry West. "Old Shatterhand" is prime Brown. Written for the band, it joins swing jazz and progressive bluegrass to rock dynamics and Baroque harmony. "Regalito" was composed specifically for classical guitarist Sharon Isbin, who elegantly goes head-to-head with the banjoist on the intricately detailed melody. "BANJOBIM" is a banjo-composed jazz-samba with lush chord changes and sultry flute from John Ragusa. A set highlight, its chart finds Brown playing an all-wood banjo with a sound hole called "the banjola." "Tall Hog at the Trough" is a virtuosic, fire-breathing, banjo and fiddle duet with lifelong friend Duncan. Closer "Porches," with Kronos Quartet, revisions a melody by Stephen Foster. Despite the title, its interwoven lyric and harmonic frame renders it a parlor waltz and a pastorale simultaneously. On Banjo is an adventurous, dazzling, skillful showcase for Brown's advanced compositional and boundless playing skills that directly addresses her restlessly creative musical appetite.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo