Valse Sinistre by Billy Drummond and Freedom of Ideas
If New York City jazz drummer Billy Drummond is leading his latest quartet, Freedom of Ideas, in a nine-track treatise on recent sociopolitical unrest on the combo’s debut, he’s following a decades-old jazz tradition of reflecting the tenor of the times. Check out the foursome’s iteration of a Carla Bley waltz for their title track, which fittingly evokes menace amid a melody that initially presents itself unthreateningly.
Drummond keeps time in myriad meters like a percussion avalanche undergirding alternately angular and melodic piano/bass/sax interplay. Valse Sinistre’s near-constant tumult compels from the get-go but also creates an unlikely serenity. Though by no means the sort of fusion exercise that makes for sonic wallpaper, Drummond and his ensemble’s extended trick of balancing lyricism and precipitating cacophony is an invitation for lovers of more traditional sounds to venture gingerly into more avant-garde soundscapes.
