Turbulence and Pulse

Asher Gamedze is a South African drummer, composer, and bandleader. Jazz is the genre that most directly claims him under its umbrella (even if he may disagree with that classification). His debut album, Dialectic Soul, and his work with Angel Bat Dawid & Tha Brothahood, place him firmly in the hard bop lineage of the 50s and early 60s, as well as a descendent of the jazz vanguard bloodline of South African jazz heroes the Blue Notes and the American vanguard of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and others. The album title comes from poet and scholar Fred Moten, who described Gamedzes drumming in the internet forum Poesis as an "amazing interplay between turbulence and pulse. Pulse is supposed to regulate and also be regular, but the turbulence underneath it and on top of it, its just extraordinary." He also noted that the tenet is a fundamental rhythmic element in Black music. Gamedze is joined on Turbulence and Pulse by his Dialectic Soul quintet -- veteran tenor saxophonist Buddy Wells, trumpeter Robin Fassie, and bassist Thembinkosi Mavimbela. He produced the set and recorded it in Cape Town in May 2021. Chicago-based vocalist Julian "Deacon" Otis also assists. The title-track opener commences with a reverbed piano, a shuffling, circular drum pattern, the sound of wind, and a vocal chant that frames the artists creative manifesto regarding time and space in the making of music. "Wynter Time" is a nine-minute modal blues dedicated to Black Caribbean radical intellectual Sylvia Wynter, author of the book Black Metamorphosis. Gamedze sets the dancing pace, rolling his snares, tom-toms, and cymbals as the frontline horns languidly explore the lyric with processional discipline. Wells tenor solo takes time to develop as it punctuates blues and post-bop atop the circular rhythmic progression. "If It Rains. To Pursue the Truth." is introduced by the drummer and Fassie. The latter offers a mournful, minor-key lyric adorned by Mavimbelas punctuation of each roll, accent, and fill from Gamedze, with Wells arriving in the second half to underscore the trumpeters lines on tenor. "Alibama," composed jointly by Fassie and Gamedze, recalls the joyous, resistance-fueled township jazz of the 70s with a long, winding, lullaby-like melody driven by a triple-timed bassline and frenetic bop drumming. One can hear both Abdullah Ibrahim and Hugh Masekela in the lyric. The bass-fueled abstraction in "Out Stepped Zim," frames a hypnotic melody that sounds influenced by Colemans "Lonely Woman." Wells solo goes head to head with the rhythm section as they extend the entire concept of rhythmic and harmonic interplay. Closer "Underground Formation" is a direct nod to Chicago, his adoptive American city, and he threads in tonal, modal, and rhythmic notions informed by the influence of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Taken whole, Turbulence and Pulse is at once remarkably adventurous and profoundly accessible. Special editions of the album are appended with three tracks from a show in Cairo, Egypt with a completely different ensemble. ~ Thom Jurek