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Up From The Sky is an unusually direct and cohesive band, with freewheeling eclecticism, brazen energy, and an unvarnished affection for the blues. No dry guitar with rhythm formula here: Fonda, McCraven and Purrone make a tempestuous triumvirate. They hit with A-Team force, but plenty of humor, presence, and sass, as well. So it's not surprising to find that, coincidentally, many of the tunes here have assiciations with famous trumpeters, renowned on-stage dramatists.
Talk about variety! These guys sound as comfortable with reggae, funk, and calypso as they do with straight ahead swinging. No wonder, with their variegated experiences and early penchants for James Brown, Miles Davis, and, yes, Jimi Hendrix. If they could've fit any more tunes on this debut album, we'd probably hear a sensitive samba with true bilancao, or a hard-sock rocker, or an outside jam. They can play 'em, and make it stick.
This set was carved live from tapes made at La Boca, a little Mexican restaurant with a jalapeno-hot music policy, in Middletown, Connecticut in May, 1986. Joshua, a hip, flip modal tune Miles Davis recorded at least twice, opens with a very fast and clean bass vamp by Fonda. Interplay is the game with this threesome, and they toss around tempo and harmony with ease and gusto, align cross-rhythms and accents with breathtaking precision.
Roots are exposed with fun and relaxation on McC's Attack, where McCraven's vocal choruses counter and banter with Purrone's bluesdrenched guitar.
Povo, a Freddie Hubbard anthem from his slick days with Creed Taylor, goes down smooth with a heavy back beat. Once again, the team's excellent interplay lifts us out of the realm of the simplistic. These guys listen and click: check the fade vamp's open-hi-hat schuss, sliding bass pattern, and light guitar strums.
Quick flight from Barbados to Jamaica, aboard the Fungi Mama, Blue Mitchell's joyous calypso from Jazz Messenger days, evinces vociferous appreciation from the clubgoers. Purrone varies his garb greatly: wetsuit, drysuit, his every bridge arcing its own span. Three melodic choruses from McCraven are underlined by the strings.
Round Midnight. Long, lean relaxed 1986 lines from Purrone cast their spell, then a team effort on Miles Davis' 1957 pickup, adapted from the 1946 collaboration between Thelonious Monk and Cootie Williams. Fonda and McCraven are models of taste and togetherness. A classic four times over.
Get experienced with this socking, working ensemble!
Fred Bouchard 3/17/87
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