California-born, Brooklyn-based guitarist Will Bernard brings both poles of his geographical foundation to bear on Freelance Subversives. As a leader and sideman, the restless axeman/composer has leapfrogged across jazz, funk, hip-hop, and world music to ultimately meld them in a loopy signature indelibly -- and impossibly -- his own. Freelance Subversives is his first album since 2016. His sidemen include alternating bassists Ben Zwerin and Jeff Hanley, and organists/keyboardists Eric Finland and Ben Stivers, drummer Eric Kalb, and percussionist Moses Patrou. Bernard uses several high-profile guests selectively, including saxophonists Skerik and Jay Rodriguez, and organist John Medeski.
Opener "Pusher Danish" refracts a soul-jazz guitar and B-3 vamp through blistering hard bop and double-timed drumming. Bernard delivers a fiery yet focused solo to set the tone for what follows. "Back Channel" twins funky guitar and bass with a New Orleans snare/hi-hat shuffle before organ and percussion wind their way in. Bernard lays down the melody with dirty distortion and slippery timing. This nasty grouping sounds like a futurist version of the Meters. "Raffle" features Skerik twinning his baritone and tenor horns, appending a chunky chordal riff as Bernard emphasizes breakbeat snares with a rockist chorus and bridge. Skerik dialogues with himself and the drummers in conclusion. "Blue Chenille" weds smooth post-bop and soul-jazz to gritty funk drumming and percussion. Stivers engages exotica as Bernard's slide registers a seductive effect. "Grunk" is gritty, futurist funk personified by Rodriquez using his tenor and baritone horns on the front line with the B-3 and drum kit. Zwerin provides Bernard a mercurial base to explore the raw, jagged edges of the tune's harmony -- it's the set's monster jam. Medeski's organ quotes Spencer Davis' "Gimme Some Lovin'" in "Clafunj," setting up a tight groove for Bernard to engage post-bop while the rhythm section choogles around them. Medeski doubles on Wurlitzer during his solo break. The title track is labyrinthine and massively funky. The rhythm section frames a nasty bassline with a ferocious and suggestive approximation of Talking Heads' "Born Under Punches" before Bernard pushes the band toward Afro-funk with his riffs. His solo moves into an avant sphere as organs, synth, and hypnotic polyrhythms roll around and through his playing. "Garage A" is spooky, spectral, and experimental. Medeski and Hanley brew a dark, dubby swamp groove that channels Delta blues and Dr. John's "I Walk on Gilded Splinters." Bernard's slide playing here reveals why Tom Waits hired him for Bad as Me. "Lifer" weds fingerpopping Latin boogaloo to neo-psych. (Clearly Bernard is a fan of Ray Barretto's Acid). Closer "We the People" melds all the album's adventurous musical pathways in a single, mutant funk jam; it's as steamy as it is infectious. Freelance Subversives is expertly curated and performed. It offers a multidimensional portrait of Bernard as guitarist, composer, and near-visionary bandleader. If there were a soundtrack to a dance party in space, this is it.