Second Wave＜限定盤/Blue with Black Swirl Vinyl＞

This early effort by keyboardist Roland Haynes is an open and explorative soul-jazz session. Like John Patton's comparable 1969 date, Accent on the Blues, this set has its spacy moments, but, on the whole, isn't quite "out" enough to be considered avant-garde. A number of different moods and tempos are represented here. Some tunes, like the psychedelic opener, "Eglise," find the dual keyboard front line floating over slow, deep funk rhythms. Others employ modal jazz vamps and lightening-fast chops. "Descent" and "Second Wave," for example, are flat-out exhausting and find drummer Carl Burnette chopping and reconfiguring each beat at breakneck speeds. Burnette is perhaps best known for his work with Gene Harris in the early '70s and listeners appreciative of his beat-down funk style on Three Sounds jams like "Duck Soup" will equally dig the groovy numbers that bookend this set. Haynes is heard on one of two electric pianos in this session. The other, held down by Kirk Lightsey, was fed through a wah effect and at times sounds much more like a guitar. For the most part, though, every song here is a winner, among them the opener and the infectious "Funky Mama Moose." ~ Brandon Burke