| Vital
Information: Tom Coster,
Hammond B-3 organ, Fender Rhodes, accordion
Frank Gambale,
guitar
Baron Browne acoustic & electric basses
Steve Smith,
drums
Tracks:
1. Tunnel
Vision
2.
Beneath the Surface
3.
Cat Walk
4.
Around the World
5.
Soho
6.
A Little Something
7.
From Naples to Heaven
8.
Baton Rouge
9.
Fine Line
10.
High Wire
Album Credits:
Coming
soon...
|
Liner Notes:
Acknowledging his
appearance on a string of five mega-selling albums with arena rock
kings Journey, Columbia Records deigned to throw drummer Steve Smith a
bone back in 1983. What Smith did with that golden opportunity was to
record Vital Information, a hard-hitting instrumental project that
harkened back to his incendiary late ‘70s work with fusion violinist
Jean-Luc Ponty and with guitarist Ronnie Montrose. He followed up that
solo release with a tour, a second record, Orion, and... voila!... a
band was born.
" The
history of that first record is that I had known the bass player, Tim
Landers, and the sax player, David Wilczewski, since high
school," recalls Smith. "We played together in ‘71 and ‘72
in the Bridgewater State College big band in Massachusetts. The three
of us were actually high school students from different schools that
they brought in because they didn’t have enough players in the
college big band. We met then and continued to play through the years.
Even during the time when I was playing with Jean-Luc Ponty, Ronnie
Montrose or Journey, and Tim was playing with Al Di Meola and Dave was
with Al Kooper, we still got together once a year and played gigs in
Boston. Eventually, by ‘83, I was able to get a record deal on
Columbia. That’s when I came up with the Vital Information name and
we did our first record with Mike Stern and Dean Brown on guitars,
both were old friends from the Berklee College of Music. So basically
Vital Information was just a bunch of friends getting together and
having a good time making a real record on a major label. And it just
kept going from there, I wanted to keep the band going as an outlet
for whatever I was interested in musically and creatively, and to play
with the people that I really wanted to play with."
Now in its 21st
year since that initial release, Vital Information has become a
formidable fusion juggernaut whose longevity surpasses the Zawinul
Syndicate, Tribal Tech and even Weather Report. With various personnel
changes over the years, (bassist Kai Eckhardt played on 1988’s Fiafiaga,
acoustic bassist Larry Grenadier and saxophonist Larry Schneider
played on 1990’s Vitalive!, electric bassist Jeff Andrews
joined in ’92 on Easier Done Than Said), Vital Information
continued to evolve while refining its distinctive sound. As Smith
points out, "It was a little more rock and fusion oriented at the
beginning and then it went through a phase where we were doing things
on the computer, which reflected a lot of what was going on at the
time in the late ‘80s. Keyboardist Tom Coster joined the group on Global
Beat in ’86 and guitarist Frank Gambale started with us in ’88
on Fiafiaga. In the early ‘90s we stopped using the sax and
later we reinvented ourselves with a more organic approach of
featuring Tom on the Hammond B-3 and Frank on the jazz-box guitar and
by going after the looser/funkier U.S. Beat vibe."
That new direction
came in with 1998’s Where We Come From, a rootsy amalgam
which ran the stylistic gamut from James Brown funk to Booker T &
The MGs Memphis soul to searing Tony Williams Lifetime-inspired fusion
while making further allusions to jazz icons like Buddy Rich, Jimmy
Smith, Wes Montgomery and Ornette Coleman along the way. That
Americanized formula became more clarified on 2000’s Live Around
The World, which introduced electric bassist and longtime Jean-Luc
Ponty sideman Baron Browne to the Vital lineup. Their group chemistry
solidified on 2001’s Show ‘Em Where You Live.
On the band’s
11th album, Come On In, Vital Information continues to hone its
"American music" direction while staking out some
adventurous new territory. With this third Vital Information recording
to showcase the ongoing lineup of Smith, Coster, Gambale and Browne,
the listener is invited to a veritable banquet of sounds to satisfy a
wide variety of tastes. From slamming funk and syncopated second line
grooves to seriously swinging, uptempo B-3 burners, South Indian
Carnatic inspired jams and sizzling fuzoid romps, these seasoned
veterans cover a lot of bases on Come On In and do it all in
such convincing fashion.
Vital founder Smith
is quick to point out that a key to the band’s remarkable
versatility is its bassist. "Baron brought a real serious groove
element to the band," says Smith of his rhythm section partner.
"He’s my favorite bass player to play with because he can play
all the styles and he always makes the music feel so good. Baron plays
great swing, great funk and groove, he can read anything and play in
all the odd time signatures and he can play over changes really well.
It’s hard to find bass players who can do all of that, so he really
matches up with me well."
Opening on a
decidedly jazz note with "Tunnel Vision," paced by Smith’s
briskly swinging stickwork and Gambale’s brilliant guitar playing,
the highly flexible unit moves easily and authoritatively to Tom
Coster’s kinetic title cut. With Steve’s steady hi hat pulse and
the tricky unison figures between Gambale’s guitar and Browne’s
electric bass, this bass feature is reminiscent of Jaco Pastorius’
chops-busting anthem "Teen Town." On the freewheeling
acoustic trio improvisation "Beneath The Surface," Smith
eschews the traps set here for the African clay pot Udu drum, setting
up a groove underneath Coster’s accordion and Gambale’s steel
string acoustic guitar. That organic jam serves as an intro to the
pumped-up, electrified funk-fusion offering "Cat Walk,"
which features ripping solos by Coster on B-3 and Gambale on
clean-toned guitar wailing over a 7/8 groove.
"Around The
World" bears the stamp of New Orleans’ premier ambassadors of
funk, The Meters. Note how Browne’s slippery yet deeply-rooted
basslines here form a moving, grooving pocket with Smith’s
convincing second line beat – in 9/4 – capturing that inimitable
push-and-pull feel that marked so many of The Meters’ ‘60s and ‘70s
hits, courtesy of the great rhythm tandem of bassist George Porter and
drummer Zigaboo Modeliste. On top of that earthy pocket, Coster layers
on Man-Child-era Herbie Hancock-isms on synth while Gambale unleashes
more of his fiery fretboard work, culminating in some exhilarating
arpeggiated exchanges with Coster, at the tag of this infectious
groover.
Gambale’s "Soho"
is a suitable showcase for his peerless chops. A swinging midtempo
vehicle, it reveals the Aussie guitar hero’s undying love of Wes
Montgomery while also highlighting his patented (and mind-boggling)
sweep picking technique. Gambale also reveals his fondness for blowing
effortlessly over blues form at breakneck tempos on his smoking jazz
number "A Little Something." Smith’s agile brushwork in
tandem with Browne’s insistent walking basslines provides a swinging
foundation for this surging hard bop number. The sparks really fly
during Coster’s burning, Jimmy Smith-inspired B-3 solo while Gambale
ups the ante with another awesome solo that culminates in a daring
guitar-drums breakdown between Gambale and Smith. The two have been
developing their obvious musical rapport in Vital Information since
1988 and have further forged an explosive chemistry together through a
series of power trio recordings with bassist Stu Hamm (1998’s Show
Me What You Can Do, 2000’s The Light Beyond and 2002’s GHS3).
Gambale’s
bittersweet waltz-time number, "From Naples To Heaven,"
carries a distinctly Mediterranean feel with Coster’s accordion
work. That affecting piece is a dedication to Frank’s late father
Lorenzo, who hailed from Naples, Italy. The tightly executed,
metrically-challenging unison lines that pop up throughout "Baton
Rouge" show the influence of South Indian motifs on Smith’s
U.S. drumming sensibility. As he explains, "The tune is in 5/4
– the drums and bass play 2+3 while the guitar plays 3+2 -- and uses
some South Indian Carnatic rhythmic devises that I’ve learned by
playing with some fantastic Indian musicians. The ghatam master T.H.
"Vikku" Vinayakram (a founding member of Shakti) taught me
the rhythm that we used as an ending. We jammed on the feels and
Baron, Frank and Tom came up with their parts, it’s a true band
offering."
"Fine
Line," the other acoustic trio improvisation, again has Smith
switching from drumset to Udu drum alongside Coster’s accordion and
Gambale’s steel string acoustic guitar. And the band closes out the
collection in powerhouse fashion with "High Wire," a
full-out fusion effort that recalls Return To Forever’s 1974 fusion
anthem "Beyond The Seventh Galaxy" from Where Have I
Known You Before. This volatile piece is marked by Smith’s
aggressive backbeats, precise stop-time unison lines and a
take-no-prisoners approach to soloing by Gambale, whose ferocious
sweeping demonstration here will simultaneously frighten and delight
aspiring ax-slingers.
There isn’t a
more flexible and disciplined band of killer players on the jazz scene
today than Vital Information. And they prove it once again on Come
On In.
-- Bill Milkowski
Bill Milkowski is a
regular contributor to Jazz Times, Jazziz, Bass Player and Modern
Drummer magazines. He is also the author of "JACO: The
Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius" (Backbeat Books)
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