This album is a collaboration between vibraphonist
Stefon Harris, trumpeter
Christian Scott, and tenor saxophonist David Sánchez, recorded in Havana with Cuban musicians, including pianists
Rember Duharte and
Harold López-Nussa. It's not a Latin jazz album, though; these guys are primarily interested in moving classic hard bop into the future with infusions of hip-hop sensibility and groove, and that aesthetic permeates
Ninety Miles, though there are occasional keyboard montunos and plenty of conga-driven rhythms to be heard, particularly on the album's peak, the hard Afro-Cuban/New Orleans funk workout "Congo." In a way,
Ninety Miles is a puzzling album, because it doesn't seem to be making any explicit political statement; it's about the artistry, and nothing more.
Christian Scott is a blazing young trumpeter in the
Clifford Brown mold;
Stefon Harris, who came up under
Greg Osby, is keenly aware of the vibes' traditional position within jazz, and makes the most of that; David Sánchez is a powerful saxophonist with a flair for melody over muscle-flexing displays of lung power. And that's all they really want you to take away from this album. It's a blowing session that just happens to have been recorded in Cuba, with Cuban musicians backing them. Which, in its way, is a political statement, if an oblique one. But the album is well worth hearing on purely musical grounds. ~ Phil Freeman