Capsule Reviews
February 2004

Carl Grubbs Quartet
Stepping Around the Giant (CIMP) 21 January 2003

A cousin of John Coltrane, alto saxophonist and Philadelphia native Carl Grubbs recorded three or four albums as The Visitors for Muse Records in the early 1970s with his late brother, Earl Grubbs (he played tenor and soprano and passed away in 1989). Since then, he's been busy with jazz education (I believe he's currently working in Maryland) and has self-produced several recordings as a leader on his own label.

He's recently released a new quartet record, Stepping Around the Giant (CIMP), where he shares the front line with tenor saxophonist Odean Pope. The title tune is his variation on Coltrane's "Giant Steps." There are some other nice tunes, including two sax duets where he and Odean engage in intense interplay that sounds influenced by the Julius Hemphill's World Saxophone Quartet writing. (Grubbs was a member of the Julius Hemphill Saxophone Sextet.) The album features free playing but also includes several melodic tunes and is worth a listen.     — ALAN LANKIN

Dapp Theory - Y'All Just Don't Know (Concord) 12 August 2003

Dapp Theory is a group led by pianist Andy Milne, who is an alumnus of Steve Coleman's M-Base groups. Milne's aim with the group is to merge jazz with hip-hop and other genres such as folk-rock and pop. The group's main instrumentation consists of harmonica, electric bass, drums, piano and keyboards. Canadian folk-rock singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn sings on three tunes that he also co-wrote. (On the face of it, he seems like an odd choice, but he sounds good here.)

I'm not a hip hop expert, but this is one of the most interesting of this type of genre-crossing effort that I've heard. (Although a few tracks approach jam-band noodling.) And I'm happy he includes actual drumming, which is crisp, but human-sounding. As a bonus. the disc also includes ten minutes of video footage, which includes an interview and a performance.     — ALAN LANKIN

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last update 21 February 2004