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Expanded Liner Notes:
The drummer in every band has the
capacity to become the “de facto” leader and arranger, just by his
strong voice, and the complimentary nature of the instrument. In
performance, drummer Steve Smith fits into this mold perfectly.
However, as a bandleader and a musician he brings much more to the
table.
Smith’s background of musical
experience ranges far and wide. Most recently he’s been touring with a
new incarnation of Mike Mainieri’s Steps Ahead, playing
Indian/fusion with George Brooks’ Summit (featuring Zakir Hussain
on tabla), and leading his new straight-ahead quintet Jazz Legacy
(with Andy Fusco, Walt Weiskopf, Mark Soskin and Baron Browne.) Yet,
it’s his group Vital Information that is the culmination of all
these influences, the canvas for his ever-expanding musical palette.
These endeavors have had a direct
impact on the music Vital Information creates, which is always a
unique blend of traditions combined with fresh ingredients. Their new
recording Vitalization continues this expansive approach.
Vitalization, the twelfth recording by
Steve Smith and Vital
Information, features longtime band members Steve Smith on drums,
Tom Coster on keyboards, bassist Baron Browne and introduces Vinny
Valentino as the band’s new guitarist.
Smith’s recent musical activities have inspired him to
include special guests and an international flavor. Saxophonist Bill
Evans, percussionists Pete Lockett (from London), Gilad (from Israel)
and Juan Carlos Melián (from Spain), all make important contributions to
Vitalization.
Smith explained these contributions for
the new record from his New York City home, "Bill Evans is one of my
favorite sax players. We tour together in both Steps Ahead and
Soulbop. In 2003, Bill toured with Vital Information as a
special guest and appears with us on the Hudson Music DVD, Modern
Drummer Festival 2003. I was hearing sax on four of the tunes, so it
was natural to ask Bill to play."
Over the past five years, Steve Smith
has been studying and playing Indian rhythms, practicing konnakol (South
Indian vocal percussion) and has started playing the ghatam, the South
Indian clay-pot drum. As a result, Smith has a new interest in hand
percussion, which has led to the international flavor on Vitalization.
Smith speaks highly of the percussion
contributors to the recording. "Gilad is now living in New York City,
which is where I first saw him playing in Vinny Valentino's band. I was
taken by his interesting ideas and virtuosity. Juan Carlos Melián and I
met at a drum camp in Marktoberdorf, Germany where we were both
teachers. He sat in with Vital Information on a European tour in
2004 and we all enjoyed his vibe and musical approach to percussion."
Both percussionists excel on the
congas, cajón and all of the various ethnic shakers and "toys." Konnakol
is heard on "Interwoven Rhythms - Synchronous" and "Dialogue.” These
tunes feature the remarkable world percussionist
Pete Lockett.
Of his percussive partner Smith says,
"Pete has world-class knowledge and abilities on the tabla (from the
North Indian Hindustani tradition) and kanjira and konnakol (from South
Indian Carnatic music). We've played a few duo and trio concerts over
the years, which gave me the idea to have him play on Vitalization. I
incorporated some Indian rhythmic ideas on our last recording, Come
On In, but I wanted to take that approach even further, so I invited
Pete to enhance the new music.”
With true musical maturity, Smith
leaves plenty of space for all of the guest percussionists to season the
music. Over the past few years the rest of Vital Information’s
palette has been expanding as well.
While Tom Coster is still turning up
the heat in classic Hammond B3 style on his new Korg BX3, he is now
conjuring otherworldly synth sounds and navigating the band’s new odd
time signatures with more ease, allowing him to interject his soulful
personality upon every note that he plays. Bassist Baron Browne is
further defining his role within the music as a creative soloist, while
never forsaking his role as keeper of the groove.
Which brings us to Vital Information’s
newest member, Vinny Valentino. Smith remarks, “Vinny grew up playing in
Hammond B3 trios and has that deep swing ingrained into his playing.
He's extremely funky, has a warm sound and is a strong composer. When
our long-time guitarist Frank Gambale left the band to develop his solo
career, Vinny was our first choice to step into the group.”
Valentino grew up in Washington DC and
is a graduate of Howard University. He has played with everyone from
Jimmy McGriff and George Benson (his guitar mentor), to Bill Evans, John
Pattitucci and Dennis Chambers. It is Benson who calls Vinny a "young
genius with brilliant tone and fresh ideas." Valentino has seven
recordings as a leader.
After Vinny joined the band in July
2006, the band embarked on some "collective writing" and Valentino's
Adirondack lakeside mountain retreat was the perfect setting for
creativity. This process was nothing new to the band but the locale and
the environment were entirely different.
After 10 days of extensive jamming,
composing and arranging, Vital Information emerged from the mountains of
upstate New York with more than an albums worth of new music. "But then
we did something different," Smith reveals, "We took the new music on
the road performing it live before making the record. This is something
we’ve always wanted to do."
All of the new music has touches of
inspiration from Smith’s latest experiences, the expected fire and
groove from Browne and Coster, and a refined sense of swing that
Valentino brings to the mix.
"Interwoven Rhythms - Synchronous"
finds Lockett and Smith’s konnakol vocals synchronized over a modern
“trancelike” groove featuring Baron’s dancing bass line and Coster’s
floating electric keyboard. Vinny finds the perfect spaces to interject
some classic rhythm guitar that ties everything together. At the
conclusion of every phrase, we hear unison konnakol and drum set that is
simply staggering.
"Get Serious" is an exemplary Tom
Coster composition -- tight unison lines, gorgeous chords, soaring
melodies and dynamic basslines. The percussion section of Juan Carlos
and Gilad support the melodies as well as the adventurous improvisations
of both Valentino and Coster.
The intro finds Smith playing the
syncopated melody on the toms along with Browne, Coster and Gilad. The
tension builds even further when Smith introduces a jagged yet
appropriate groove. All of this musical tension is released when
Valentino’s guitar melody enters like a breath of fresh air.
Vinny’s solo remains bright, suspended
above Coster’s probing chords. For his own solo Coster focuses on the
more sinister demeanor of his harmony and he waits until the very end to
brighten things up. The tune comes full circle when the band, along with
Juan Carlos and Gilad, takes it out, playing the angular melody in
unyielding unison.
Of "The Trouble With" Smith says, "Vinny
has been playing this with his own band for a while. When I heard it, I
thought it was a perfect ‘Vital Info’ tune with its compelling groove
and soulful melody. It’s an ideal vehicle for some high powered
soloing.”
The song kicks-off with some serious
rhythm work by the composer; rarely has a rhythm guitar part been used
so effectively as an intro. A traditional Motown drum fill escorts Bill
Evans’ muscular tenor saxophone into the melody. Both Valentino and
Evans’ solos are instigated by duets with the drummer. With Valentino,
Smith’s snare and bass drum answer (and occasionally end) the
guitarist’s slippery phrases.
Coster forgoes the duet, and cuts right
to the point with a super-funky organ solo that stabs and darts,
building up to a soulful and gradual explosion from Evans. Smith and
Evans begin with a duet that leaves you wanting more and Bill proceeds
to weave his way through the solo form as though he’s played it a
thousand times. The band then lays down a nice vamp for Steve to solo
over, climaxing with some furious single strokes before the final chord.
The title for Vinny's up-tempo blues
"The Bottom Line" has a dual meaning. It is a remembrance of the famous
and departed New York City club that the band always loved playing,
while the tune itself is framed perfectly by the bottom line bass
orchestrations of Baron Browne. This is some of Smith’s most swinging
drumming to date and it inspires the rest of the band to do just the
same.
Pay close attention to Valentino’s
Grant Green inspired half time entrance to his guitar solo. Smith and
his new associate show a wonderful telepathy throughout Vinny’s well
structured and swinging offering.
Evans’ solo (this time on soprano) uses
Browne’s creatively shifting and smooth “bottom line” to help him reach
new heights. The band plays some well-orchestrated accompaniment to
Smith’s solo, before wrapping it up.
The tune "Seven and a Half," is based
on a tribal sounding drum rhythm that Smith came up with in 15/8, which
South Indian musicians call 7 1/2. This drum theme, which Lockett
doubles in perfect unison on the kanjira, reappears each time with an
altered ending repeated three times before resolving to beat one, what
the Indian musicians call a “tihai.”
Unfortunately, tunes written in odd
times sometime contain mechanical grooves that never seem to rise above
merely stating the “uneven” time signature. However, with Vital
Information, this is clearly not the case -- this tune grooves hard.
In fact, Smith and the band make the
Indian concept of playing in 7 1/2 downright funky. They collectively
accomplish this by playing through the “ones” and concentrating on their
entire soloing statements instead of the exotic time signature. Note the
scorching “rock-guitar” solo after Smith’s outrageous solo; it’s
actually a synth solo by Coster!
On the atmospheric “Interwoven Rhythms
- Dialogue” we hear Smith’s doubled konnakol vocal on the left and right
sides, while Lockett’s improvisations are heard in the middle. They
exchange phrases for the entire composition only joining together in
unison near the end of the piece. This all happens over a ethereal and
pulsing groove that is propelled by Baron’s fretless bass and Smith’ s
new Tala Wands on a sizzling Zildjian Flat Ride.
While Vinny Valentino’s "J Ben Jazz,"
(dedicated to Vinny’s bass playing buddy John Benitez) opens and closes
with some inspired conga soloing from Gilad, the tune belongs to bassist
Baron Browne. He not only contributes an elegant fretless bass solo, but
his harmonic and rhythmic underpinnings really make this tune come
alive. After two choruses of bass bliss, the band drops out for
Valentino’s serene, yet metrically intricate, chordal solo, which
becomes a vamp for Smith’s most powerful solo on the record, which
happens to be in 13.
"You Know What I Mean" is
quintessential Vital Information. This composition, written by the
entire band, is based on some of Smith’s funkiest drumbeats to date. For
this tune, Steve combines many different approaches and concepts of
funk.
At the beginning we hear the snaky and
slippery style of 70s San Francisco funk, he eventually morphs this with
some second line feel and later swings hard with a backbeat -- some NYC
“swunk” -- and Baron Browne is with him every step of the way, the two
musicians working as one. In his guitar solo Valentino maneuvers the
shifting ground by taking chances and landing on his feet.
After Bill Evans’ haunting soprano
saxophone enters, Smith introduces a feel reminiscent of Al Foster’s
drumming with Miles Davis. This unique approach implies half time and
double time simultaneously, giving the soloist lots of room.
Gilad’s melodic congas and Vinny’s
wickedly funky guitar serve to further enhance this extraordinarily
grooving interlude. Finally, all of the melodic lines reappear, twisting
around one another before Evans and Coster trade some angular phrases
and take us home.
Upon close listening, you’ll notice
that the aptly titled "Groove
Time" and "Jimmy Jive" are the same tune, written by Tom Coster, with
two contrasting treatments. For "Groove Time" the band incorporates some
Washington, DC "Go-Go" rhythms into the arrangement and for "Jimmy Jive"
the band embraces a greasy Jimmy Smith approach. Tom dedicates the
latter version to the late B3 master.
“The Closer” is a fusion tour de force.
The band usually writes a larger than life set closer for every
recording and there is no doubt that this one provides the fireworks
that Vital Information is known for.
This moniker is defined by Vinny and
Tom’s searing exchanges, Baron’s virtuosic solo and Steve and Vinny’s
blazing duet. “The Closer” is in fact a three-part suite that starts in
a swinging jazz-rock mode, moves into a fusion middle section,
recapitulates part one with even more energy and culminates – in classic
Vital Info style – with a blistering drum solo over a vamp.
“Positano” is a lovely coda to a
masterful recording. One can feel the romance when listening to Vinny
Valentino's beautiful serenade of a ballad, featuring Coster on his
accordion.
After 20 plus years, Vital
Information’s expanding musical territory is larger than ever.
Vitalization is an exciting new chapter in this hard working band's
ongoing history.
- Mark Griffith
drummer - recording artist - author - historian
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