Big Bang Theory
There's a renaissance going on in jazz violin, with more exceptional players--Regina Carter,India Cooke, andMark Feldman--than at any time since the 1930s. Billy Bang can take considerable responsibility for that. He's been an inventive, hard-swinging improviser since the 1970s, blending country fiddle and urban street-corner directness with techniques that reach to the avant-garde. While he's touched on many bases in his career, from hisTribute to Stuff SmithwithSun Raand the chamber jazz of theString Trio of New Yorkto improvised solo violin and hip-hop settings, this quartet's idiom is primarily the modal, modern mainstream ofMiles DavisandJohn Coltrane. It's a style the group plays with rugged and blues-rich vigor and one that Bang uses to create solos of emotional depth and raw beauty on moving originals like the ballad "At Play in the Fields of the Lord," the gospel tune "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," andFreddie Hubbard's "Little Sunflower." On "One for Jazz," Bang uses words and pizzicato violin to make an effective tribute to the late drummer Dennis Charles. Londoner Alexis T. Pope on piano is a real find, ranging from stark simplicity to densely chromatic invention, and the music is solidly anchored by bassistCurtis Lundy, another adroit soloist, and drummer Codaryl Moffett. Bang is an original, and this is a fine sequel toBang On, his 1997 CD in a similar vein. --Stuart Broomer