VOODOO DOGS
Voodoo Dogs
Palmetto
PM206

Your typical smooth jazz offering has a very distinct sort of cover art. Usually the main smooth jazz guy, often a well-tanned individual who has the time to work out and the dough to hire a professional stylist, is dressed in some sort of flowing cotton jammies. If there is hair, there is lots of it. If not, there is complete baldness. He is walking along a beach, or in a park, looking down at his feet and smiling just like a model in a mail-order clothing catalog. He usually has his trusty sax / guitar with him, or close by. A supreme being must be thanked in the liner notes.

The cover art for Voodoo Dogs is, by contrast, pretty darned edgy, with toothy stick figures, superimposed anatomical diagrams of various canines and hand-scribbled lettering. These Dogs look like regular guys, they do not appear to have stylists (…or none are credited, and if that’s the case, I don’t want to be around for their next manicure!!), and (gasp!) they do not thank the supreme being in the liner notes. Imagine my surprise when I put the disk in the player and out comes… smooth jazz. I was disappointed to say the least, as I was hoping for something funkily adventurous along the lines of Medeski, Martin and Wood, or Galactic. I don’t think my modest expectations were too high. Though I am not familiar with guitarist Bob Ward’s previous work, Larry Goldings is a fine keyboardist, and saxophonist Tim Ries has done some interesting stuff in the past. I am a tolerant listener who has no knee-jerk beef with synthesizers, samples and processed rhythms, as long as they are used in a creative manner.

The first track, with live drums from the wonderful Billy Drummond, is actually not too bad, and bit reminiscent of some of the work Goldings did with John Scofield (ca. "Hand Jive"), only smoother. Bob Ward’s guitar soloing here, and throughout the disk, is much more in the George Benson / Wes Montgomery mold than Scofield’s ever was. Things begin to go downhill on the second track, "Beatnik," which is as cartoonish and cutesy as the title implies. Maybe they should have inserted a sample of Ginsberg reading "Howl" somewhere in there, just for authenticity. Though there are some attractive grooves (the conga-fueled "You Dig") and decent solos from Goldings ("Vicoden"), Ward ("Uganda") and vibraharpist Joe Locke, much of this disk seems like aural wallpaper to me. "The Crazy Man" sounds like a backing track for an unreleased Steely Dan tune. "Here We Go" tries to get into a David Sanborn sort of groove but fails. Most excruciating are the world music trappings, which wind up sounding like a 21st Century take on the exotica stylings of Martin Denny, but without the goofy humor. Instead of some guy trying to do bird-calls in the background, we are subjected to the pipa setting on the trusty digital synth, and irritating shakuhachi and vocal samples. Voodoo Dogs? No. Zombie Dogs, maybe.

Dave Wayne

Track Listing: 1. Keep A Thing Happening; 2. Beatnik; 3. Uganda; 4. Vicoden; 5. You Dig; 6. Spellbound; 7. The Crazy Man; 8. The Birth of Life; 9. Here We Go; 10. People Unite

Personnel: Larry Goldings, keyboards, piano, Hammond B-3, Fender Rhodes, clavinet, synthesizers, synth bass; Bob Ward, electric and acoustic guitars, electric bass (Tracks 5, 9), samples / rhythm programming (all tracks); Tim Ries, saxophones, flutes (Tracks 2, 4, 5, 7, 9); Barry Danelian, trumpet (Tracks 2, 4); Don Downs, trumpet (Track 7); Bruce Williamson, clarinets (Track 3); Herb Hubel, trombone (Track 4); Joe Locke, vibes (Track 5); Avishai Cohen, acoustic bass (Track 1); Gary Hasse, electric bass (Track 10); Billy Drummond, "live" drums (Track 1); Taro Okamoto, ride cymbal (Track 3); Norbert Goldberg, "live" drums (Track 9)