Below the Bassline is a successfully smooth integration of traditional reggae and jazz: two music forms that may not immediately spring to mind when contemplating the flawless mixture of music styles. However, the collective featured in this album -- and
Ranglin (a reggae and ska rhythm innovator) is a chief among them -- plays 55 minutes of island tree-swaying, soul-backed precision.
Ira Coleman's bass playing is not the focus of this album, even though the title seems to suggest so. Nor does the focus of this album fall upon the popular funk and fusion (and yes, even disco) drummer
Idris Muhammad. In fact, there is only one brief drum solo by
Muhammad on
Below the Bassline, and it is the first thing you hear.
Muhammad opens up "Congo Man Chant" with a snare-laden solo whose rhythm quickly involves
Ranglin and
Coleman, who collaborate to play eight bars of a rapid but laid-back bassline.
Monty Alexander jumps in with the piano and brings
Ernest along with him as they determine what ends up being the refrain for a moving piano solo sandwiched between two adept
Ranglin solos. There are two ska rhythm selections on this album, "Ball of Fire," on which
Roland Alphonso plays saxophone, and "Bourbon Street Skank," which features some of
Ranglin's most dexterous playing (also heard on "Nana's Chalk Pipe"). The title track is immediately identifiable as reggae, with its organ stabs on the down side of the beat,
Muhammad's gentle but consistent treatment of the hi-hats,
Ranglin's lyrical playing on the guitar, and the overall slow, relaxed tempo and feel of the tune. It is an accurate capsule of
Below the Bassline, another testament to the skill of the legendary
Ernest Ranglin and the other musicians featured here. ~ Qa'id Jacobs