It's hard not to appreciate the unique creative muse of 27-year-old saxophonist Howard Wiley, a longtime member of hip-hop queen Lauryn Hill's band who's also a well decorated young jazz vet; his accolades from the Thelonious Monk Institute include MVP honors for the Grammy All-American Jazz Band, and the Berklee College of Music Scholarship award. A lot of young lions explore the catalogs of jazz greats from the '50s, but Wiley goes further on this eclectic date, extrapolating inspiration from the legendary recordings produced by Alan Lomax and Harry Oster -- most notably their Angola Prison Spirituals. If this uneven but ultimately fascinating (if not always pleasurable to listen to) disc drives crazy those contemporary jazz fans looking to latch onto something cool, they can blame Wiley's friend, ethnomusicologist Daniel Atkinson, who introduced the saxman to the rich music of the prison. Following a visit to there in 2005, Atkinson played Wiley a recording he'd made there of "12 Gates to the City," and that inspired the easy swinging, brassy, and soul-jazzy opening track. From there the disc gets haunting or depressing, depending how you want to look at it. "Angola," featuring saxophonist David Murray, is part chamber music, part atonal tortured horn duet. We get it: these folks suffer! Wiley himself penned the moody, contemplative "The Conversation" based on Lomax's interview with a prisoner there, and it's got a bit of optimism amidst the drumbeat doom. Same goes for "Rise & Fly," the original version of which inspired the whole project. Highlights include a spirited cover of Ornette Coleman's "Peace" and a haunting operatic vocal take on "Amazing Grace." Not much joy to the Lord there, but it's nicely balanced by the disc's most appealing (and fully listenable) track, the joyous New Orleans jam "Second Line." At least it ends on a truly happy, hopeful note.
© Jonathan Widran /TiVo