Common Ground

Album review

In 2019, following their joint tour of Japan, guitarist Robben Ford and saxophonist/keyboardist Bill Evans recruited jazz bassist James Genus and Steely Dan drummer Keith Carlock to cut The Sun Room in a Nashville studio. The group is back with Rolling Stones' bassist Darryl Jones in the bass chair. Recorded in the same studio, this set's focus relies heavily on a more rockist jazz-funk and blues. Common Ground was co-produced by the saxophonist and Clifford Carter, and its nine tracks clock in at just under an hour. The session gets unruly early on with "Ever Ready Sunday," a mean, funky, jazz-rocker. Kicked off with a power chord vamp by Ford, Jones rumbles behind Carlock's snare and hi-hat breaks. Evans solos on soprano and Ford follows with a meandering meld of jazzy arpeggios and blues licks. "Crabshaw Don't Care" is an easy jazz-funk groover with Evans' alto sharing the head with guitar. The backbeat cuts deep as Jones' bass embellishes. "Sentimental Mode" is laid-back and breezy. Soprano sax paints the melody atop a lithe chord progression before Ford's lead joins with an elegant blues feel. "Hearts of Havana" begins with a series of Latin breaks from Carlock as Jones bubbles underneath. Ford's flamenco-tinged fingerpicked chords introduce Evans' lyric soprano melody. Following his melodic solo, Ford adds a blues vamp straight that recalls the one in Boz Scaggs' "Payday" before delivering a gorgeous solo composed exclusively of chord shapes underscored by punch-and-roll fills from Jones. Evans' soprano break offers an abundance of harmonic ideas. German pop singer Max Mutzke guests on the title track. Drenched in jazzy soul, the rhythm section creates a steamy frame for the singer and a guitar solo. Single "Passaic" opens with a fingerpopping rhythm section vamp that Evans' tenor swings on. He and Ford solo, then trade fours inside the meaty, walking groove. Though "Stanley" commences as an airy jazz ballad, it is transformed by the frontline into a nasty, dynamic jazz-blues with biting guitar and sax work. "Dennis the Menace" is angular post-bop wed to knotty jazz-funk. The rhythm section's fluid interplay allows for elastic soloing from their bandmates. Closer "The Little Boxer" emerges from Ford's and Evans' riff-like interaction on the scalar melody. (The guitarist's minor vamp recalls Neil Young's in "Down by the River.") Evans interjects a wandering soprano solo, bridging keys and modes. Though its tension roils, Carlock and Jones show restraint and exceptional taste in locking down the groove. Common Ground employs modern jazz as the ground for exceptional -- and playful -- group communication through rock, funk, and blues. The tunes offer imagination and sophistication -- as well as good vibes -- and showcase a masterful shared vocabulary that holds great possibility for future development. Here's hoping for a third installment.

© Thom Jurek /TiVo