Album Review: FLY OR DIE, Fly or Die or Fly or Die ((world war))

 

Fly or Die

Fly or Die or Fly or Die ((world war)) (International Anthem 2023)

jaimie branch (photo: New York Times)

-Originally published in The NYC Jazz Record-

The ironic prescience in Jaimie Branch so naming this ensemble continues to grow her legend. Fly or Die captured the late trumpeter’s urgency, her visceral burning. This 2022 recording, in both reach and persistence, seems to have anticipated the nation’s current divisiveness, speaking back to right-wing Newspeak and the realities enflaming American politics, as well as the people’s need for a bold new sound.

Album opener “Aurora Rising”, a brief organ statement careening with Chad Taylor’s and guest percussionist Daniel Villarreal’s throbbing tom-tom and timpani rolls, leads into the Afro-Cuban strains of “Borealis Dancing”. Keyboards fill the soundspace like a darkened chapel, with Branch’s mournful trumpet and Lester St. Louis’ always on-the-money cello out front. The result in much of the programming is less about separate selections than movements of the whole, best explained in the liner note: “jaimie wanted to play with longer forms, more modulations, more noise, more singing, and as always, grooves and melodies.” This concept continues into “Burning Grey” with Branch conjuring Miles against tireless rhythm by Taylor and hypnotic bassist Jason Ajemian. Branch’s lead vocal, entering at various points, counters the free sections of utter release.

A feature is “Baba Louie”, propelled by a New Orleans second-line over a samba. Guest musicians include trombonist Nick Broste, flutist/bass clarinetist Rob Frye, percussionist Villarreal, and vocalists Akenya Seymour and Kuma Dog. The piece is joyful, with bits of Ornette, Albert Ayler, Charles Ives, even Aaron Copland evident. Throughout, however, the ensemble not only excels in artistry, but crafts this new vision of American music, calling on the legacy of far and recent past. “Take Over the World” revels in primal rhythm as Branch’s hip-hop inflected vocal is paired with instrumental commentary, but it’s “World War ((Reprise))”, the closer, that sobs loudest for both nation and leader. Her trumpet, backed by groaning cello and keyboard, emotes over harmonies that hauntingly recall the German ballad “Falling in Love Again” (Friedrich Hollaender, 1930), carrying the album—her final as a leader--to a quite perfect close. Such aural mastery, however, causes one to imagine the grand Branch catalog of tomorrow, the one that might have been.

CREDITS:

Jaimie branch – trumpet, voice, keyboard, percussion, happy apple
Lester St. Louis – cello, voice, flute, marimba, keyboard
Jason Ajemian – double bass, electric bass, voice, marimba
Chad Taylor – drums, mbira, timpani, bells, marimba

-with special guests-
Nick Broste - trombone (on track 5 & 6)
Rob Frye - flute (track 5), bass clarinet (track 5, 6 & 7)
Akenya Seymour - voice (track 5)
Daniel Villarreal - conga and percussion (track 2, 5, 6 & 7)
Kuma Dog - voice (track 5)