Scotty Hard initially made his reputation in the rap world, but since 2000 or so he's been doing at least as many jazz gigs (if not more), contributing heavily to albums by
Sex Mob and
Medeski, Martin & Wood.
Scotty Hard's Radical Reconstructive Surgery is
Hard's first jazz release, put out as part of Thirsty Ear's illustrious Blue Series Continuum. The album is constructed from performances of an amazing all-star group:
Matthew Shipp and
John Medeski on keyboards, free jazz giant
William Parker on bass, and
Nasheet Waits on drums, with additional contributions from
DJ Olive and percussionist
Mauricio Takara. Then comes the radical reconstructive surgery.
Hard takes those performances and transforms them, adding drum machines and samples and using dub techniques and studio production to rework the material into something that probably couldn't have been performed live, but retains the essence of the live performance. For a guy with a reputation as a free player,
William Parker sure knows how to work a groove, and he and
Waits set up some muscular beats.
Shipp and
Medeski are both virtuosos in their own right, and
Hard contrasts them nicely by having them play different instruments on the songs, generally organ and piano. The playing is great all the way around, but this isn't an album about virtuosic solos; it's about groove and atmosphere and it succeeds in spades. Oddly enough,
Hard's modus operandi is laid out in an exerpt from a medical journal written by "The Company of Barber Surgeons" (remember "Theodoric of York"?) concerning bodily humors and "foul vapours" in the curing of the sick. The answer?: "to experiment with new techniques; to undertake a radical reconstructive surgery." The rest of the quote fits in nicely with the concept as well. Is this traditional jazz? No way. Is it jazz? You bet. Thirsty Ear has been releasing some of the finest examples of this new modern jazz over the last several years, and
Radical Reconstructive Surgery stands up nicely alongside releases by avant-jazzmen like
Matthew Shipp and
Craig Taborn and other entries in the Blue Series Continuum from non-jazzers like Good and Evil and
Spring Heel Jack. This is decidedly adventurous jazz that invites listeners in and can make them move at the same time. Well done. ~ Sean Westergaard