Blicher Hemmer Gadd: It will be alright

Rating: ★★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Steve Gadd
Dan Hemmer (org)
Michael Blicher (ts)

Label:

C-Nut Records

October/2023

Media Format:

CD, LP, DL

Catalogue Number:

CNUT19

RecordDate:

Rec. date not stated

This is the fourth release from a trio formed by chance a decade ago by global-folk-influenced Danish saxophonist Michael Blicher and his Hammond organ compatriot Dan Hemmer, teaming up unexpectedly with veteran Eric Clapton/Kate Bush American jazz drums star Steve Gadd.

An interest in the classic 1960s Hammond-powered soul-jazz sound and New Orleans R&B clearly united them, but so does the award-winning Blicher's mission to connect the soulful/bluesy roots of vernacular musical cultures from Mississippi and Mali to Bulgaria.

It will be alright was intended as an all-live album, but the Covid-19 pandemic scuppered touring plans, so this is a heartfelt mix of pre-pandemic live takes and subsequent studio music that seems to catch a unique vibe of friendship, warmth and relief between the participants that transcends the generic familiarity of the tunes.

Gadd's lightly shuffling Latin pulse and Hemmer's quietly churning chordwork underpin Blicher's smoky tenor and distantly Stan Getzian phrasing on ‘Any Moment Now’, while the raucous horn hook and bumping funk pulse of ‘Susanna’ ascends, inevitably and gratifyingly, to a hooting, modulating climax.

‘Through the hurricane’ is a soul ballad with Gadd's flawlessly padding brushwork beneath it, ‘The first one to know’ is a delectable gospelly ballad, the title track a languid smoocher that grows increasingly rapturous as it unfolds.

Gadd peremptorily snaps out New Orleans snare tattoos on the pumping ‘Lady Tambourine’, while the closing ‘Snow’ is a graceful meditation for Blicher's hauntingly resonant tenor sound, quivering gently over Hemmer's rippling, tone-shifting organ hum - only the fadeout feels like a false step for a reverie that could have gone on and on.

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