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CD REVIEW FROM ALL ABOUT JAZZ

Wake Up!


By Mark Corroto

If the solicitation from the members of this band is to indeed Wake Up!, then their plea recorded here will agitate, and, yes, maybe even activate some. This quartet of saxophonist Daniel Carter (Test, Other Dimensions in Music), trumpeter Demian Richardson, Italian drummer Federico Ughi, and bassist David Moss apply a vibe that is equal parts electric Miles Davis, Prime Time-era Ornette Coleman, and Sun Ra street jam band.

Ughi is also the label chief for 577 Records. His free jazz sessions always project an immense energy, and it's the same here for these 16 unkempt pieces. The band formed with the same purpose as Carter's street performance band Test, to bring music to the people. The disheveled nature of this outing attests to the band's authenticity. Ughi's drum kit is just as likely to pulse funk as jazz, or swing free over Richardson's wah-wah trumpet playing.

The untreated nature of this music is its triumph. Just as 1970s electric Miles indicated that jazz could rock, and the New York Downtown scene of the 1990s proved that jazz can also be hard-core music, Wake Up! targets undigested energy. Carter can zoom the spaceways or play with quiet passion, as he does on "The Courage to Be," where he dances the graceful pirouette with Richardson, twisting gentle lines. But mostly this disc is about an arousing energy, invigorating the soul, and shaking the blues of conformity. Thankfully, the music is not overproduced, just kept in its wild state.