Partisans: By Proxy (Babel BDV2983)
This is only the fourth album Phi Robson, Julian Siegel, Thaddeus Kelly and Gene Calderazzo have recorded as Partisans, which seems extraordinary to me as they seem to have been around for much of my adult life. This is clearly a case of selective memory telescoping on my part as in fact they have been in existence for 13 years (I only know because I checked) and I have been a so-called adult for an awfully lot longer than that.
Anyway, By Proxy , the music of which the band has been showcasing in gigs around the country over the past weeks – I caught them at the Lichfield Jazz & Blues Festival where they were punchy as hell – is a very strong indeed collection of tunes and playing. The fact that although they might play in countless other bands they keep returning to this one and regard it more as a live band than a recording one (four discs in 13 years is the evidence for that) means that its four members are remarkably familiar with each other's playing, twists and turns, strengths and other things, and so the group dynamic and interaction is an almost organic thing.
I always think of the word “fusion” with a wry smile when I hear Partisans, because I think the jazz-rock style of the 1970s acquired such a bad name for its excesses that its strengths are often forgotten. And Partisans seem to me to embody many of them.
Advance is the first track here and has that da-da……… da-da……… bass and drums beat that Miles liked to use in his electric period – full of space and just a hint of menace. It also has the electric guitar and soprano saxophone sounds that went that Miles sound at at the time.
The title track is a tour-de-force of Partisans at its chameleon-like best, shape-shifting and colour-changing through various tempi, beats, melodic riffs, and instrumental timbres.
Mirrors also has some of those tempo-changes and odd accents – here is the fusion legacy again. Yellowjackets sometimes seem like a reference point, though Partisans are more experimental and off-the-wall than the American band, I think they would probably mutually appreciate each other's music.
MBadger has one eight-note riff that keeps appearing, and another one where sax and wah-wah guitar make a kind of tongue-pointing, “so there” gesture that sounds both rather childish and extremely liberating. The interplay in the whole band but especially from Robson and Siegel in their long, intricate harmony lines is astonishing.
Lapdog has an almost bluegrass speed to the guitar and sax lines, while Munch eases the pace with a slightly eerie acoustic guitar and tenor excursion that could be a soundtrack for some film noir – it has oily puddles and reflected neon in it, for sure. And that's just on the way to look at Edvard's pictures, presumably.
The finale is a hugely funky take on Ellington's Prelude To A Kiss , that somehow touches on Kraftwerk, drum ‘n' bass, space music, and some terrific tenor atmospherics.
All in all, I can't recommend this disc highly enough. Thoroughly original, thoroughly of its time and also completely fitting to have the name jazz written on it. And, in case I forgot to mention it, what with all the time changes and timbral excitement, it has some real beauty to it too.