The Chicago Experiment

Album review

After a 15-year hiatus, Ropeadope revives its collaborative recordings series that began with The Philadelphia Experiment in 2001, then continued with The Detroit Experiment in 2003 and The Harlem Experiment in 2007. The idea for the project was to gather groups of musicians connected with a city to represent that geography by integrating its various musical cultures. The Chicago Experiment, led by pianist, producer, composer, and arranger Greg Spero (Spirit Fingers) offers a cast of luminaries he has worked with in studios and on bandstands. They include drummer Makaya McCraven, trumpeter Marquis Hill, vibraphonist Joel Ross, guitarist Jeff Parker, bassist Darryl Jones, and tenor saxophonist Irvin Pierce. Opener "The Chant" offers punchy drumming, elliptical vibes, and a deep-pocket funky bassline under finger-popping horn vamps and punchy syncopated piano chords. Swinging funk meets bluesy hard bop and shuffling hip-hop strewn with killer breaks from McCraven as Hill moves into a sharp, high-register solo. "Sizzle Reel" commences with a spectral R&B vamp laid out by drums, bass, and vibes to introduce Parker's phased, fingerpicked guitar playing in call-and-response with Pierce, who extrapolates the melody and solos. Jones' playing bridges utterances between guitar and tenor sax. The single "Cloud Jam" is introduced by crystalline piano and guitar chords as McCraven plays a double-timed drum'n'bass rhythm atop the stuttering, skittering bassline. Hill and Pierce offer the nearly pastoral modal melody; it seems to hover in the margins yet grounds the vibes and keys. "Double Take" is smooth, laid-back and nocturnal; vibes and piano deliver contrapuntal riffs before Jones, with guitar and horns, impressionistically enters from underneath. Spero adds punchy Rhodes chords and an elliptical solo. While the blues are referenced in "Maxwell Street," Ross' motivic vibes playing centers the music between hard bop and the jazz-funk's present as McCraven's jagged hip-hop beats join the horns with short pulsing riffs atop piano and bass before Parker starts bending strings. "Rose Petal," channels the space between vintage soul-jazz and 21st century jazz-funk; Spero's meaty synth vamps and an electrified piano solo battle and coexist with layered, multi-tracked drums and a commanding bassline. Closer "Straight Shooter" finds Spero and Jones borrowing a fragment of the signature riff from Bill Withers' "Use Me" before moving off to syncopate, making room for Parker to deliver a knotty solo before opening the gate for Spero, who makes inquiries of his entire keyboard as the rhythm section buoys his delivery. A few moments later, after a tough solo by Parker, the group delivers a massive statement in jazz-funk groove. The Chicago Experiment is alternately easy and assertive, knotty and open. Everyone gets the chance to shine individually -- it wouldn't work if they didn't -- but they function as a collective who know that harmonic and rhythmic grooves are the twin engines of creativity here.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo