One of the hardest hard bopping teams around has to be the Black Art Jazz Collective, lead by the front line of Wayne Escoffery/ts, Jeremy Pelt/tp, Josh Evans/tp and James Burton III/tb and a rotating rhythm section of Xavier Davis-Victor Gould/p, Vicente Archer-Rashaan Carter/b and Johnathan Blake-Mark Whitfield Jr/dr and a guest appearance by the late great trumpeter Wallace Roney Jr who enters in for a gorgeous solo on the Escoffery’s title tune.
The music has hints of ESP/Nerfertiti era’d Miles Davis, with a sleek feel with pretty ivories by Davis on “Black Heart” while Gould is soulful on “Code Switching”. Escoffery and Pelt dig in deep on “Lookin’ For Leroy” and Pelt glistens on “The Fabricator”. Blake rumbles under the warm horns harmonizing on “Coming Of Age” and Whitfield adds a restless spirit which the brass rides during “Dsus”. This kind of music is badly needed in this musical age of navel gazing.