The Mark Lomax trio Isis & Osiris InaRhyme Records ***
Drummer Mark Lomax, who has worked with Ellis Marsalis, Billy Harper, and Clark Terry and has the album The State of Black America already to his name as a leader, not so much enters the spiritual jazz domain here as plugs directly into its energy source, joined in a piano-less setting by tenor saxophonist Edwin Bayard, and by double bassist Dean Hulett on this Ancient Egypt Kemet myth-themed album of ten instrumentals the tunes all three have co-written.Recorded in a Columbus, Ohio studio in the summer of 2012 four short interludes punctuate the main body of the album, opener ‘Kemet’ immediately a statement of intent. ‘Isis’, the most Coltranian number, sees Bayard exhibiting strong control, while Lomax practically lifts off on ‘Osiris’. The drummer-leader’s style sits firmly in the Max Roach lineage going further out on a “multi-directional” Rashied Ali-like limb on the stand-out, ‘Chaos’. On the down side it’s a little too ponderous in its less successful passages more than made up for by the abundance of more exhilarating moments elsewhere, the album catching fire ultimately on the foot-tapping ‘Resurrection.’ SG
Just released. The Mark Lomax trio, above. Photo: Inarhyme
- Details
- Category: Reviews
- Published: Sat 20th Sep 2014 14:39:34
http://www.marlbank.net/reviews/2073-healing-power