Full Circle

Albumbeschreibung

Musicians who follow in a parent's footsteps don't necessarily do so stylistically. Cornetist Graham Haynes has followed in the footsteps of his well-known father (drummer Roy Haynes) by pursuing a career in jazz, but that is where the similarity has ended. They play different instruments and have favored different types of jazz; in fact, some of Graham Haynes' recordings have really fallen outside of jazz, although jazz is the focus of Full Circle -- at least if one has a broad-minded view of jazz. No one is going to mistake Full Circle for straight-ahead acoustic bop. Rather, what transpires on this CD is best described as a mixture of electric Miles Davis, electric free funk, and clubland electronica. Haynes' appealing tone on the cornet still owes a lot to Davis, and Haynes' writing is mindful of him as well. But Davis -- even at his most abstract, experimental, and iconoclastic -- never fully embraced jazz's avant-garde and never considered himself part of free funk or electric free jazz, and there is no denying that Full Circle is avant-garde. But it isn't avant-garde in a radical way. This album favors an inside/outside approach (more inside than outside), and Haynes thrives on contrasts. Parts of the album are dissonant and chaotic, but other parts are reflective and allow Haynes to be more lyrical (sometimes, in a dark way). One of the most intriguing things that Haynes does on some of the selections is blend electric jazz with drum'n'bass, a club-oriented style that is also known as jungle. Not many jazz improvisers have been influenced by drum'n'bass, but Haynes incorporates it in a logical, coherent fashion. Creatively, Haynes has had his ups and downs along the way; he has recorded some excellent albums (Nocturne Parisian immediately comes to mind) as well as albums that were uneven. But Full Circle is one of the cornetist's stronger releases and demonstrates that being experimental doesn't have to mean being inconsistent.
© Alex Henderson /TiVo