Vijay Iyer & Mike Ladd, Holding It Down: The Veterans’ Dreams Project, Pi

From 2013. This is a very compassionate and "real" album, and concentrates on stories that need telling over and over again. Drawing on the dreams and recollections of “veterans of colour” who fought in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan it is the …

Published: 25 Dec 2019. Updated: 4 years.

From 2013. This is a very compassionate and "real" album, and concentrates on stories that need telling over and over again. Drawing on the dreams and recollections of “veterans of colour” who fought in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan it is the most considered and powerful of pianist Vijay Iyer and poet/MC/lyricist Mike Ladd’s work to date. Possibly not as caustic and challenging as 2003’s acclaimed In What Language, but more taut and at times moving, the piece was commissioned and premiered at Harlem Stage in New York.

Ladd and theatre director Patricia McGregor interviewed veterans about what they actually want out of life, but also about how they deal in their quiet near-sleeping moments about the experiences that haunt them. So, in effect, the album is about trauma and conscience and the aftermath of war, the coming to terms with the horror of what all these veterans went through.

Recorded a few months before the live performance last autumn the written contributions and vocals of Maurice Decaul, who served with the Marines in Iraq, and Air Force servicewoman Lynn Hill, who piloted drones in Afghanistan from a far remote US base, are at the heart of an album powered by a band that includes hip-hop drummer Kassa Overall (also known for his work with Geri Allen), cellist Okkyung Lee, guitarist Liberty Ellman, and vocalist Guillermo E. Brown.

Ladd’s voice has a compelling authority to it throughout while Iyer, who has written all the music and also plays Fender and uses Ableton Live processing effects, is found in a very different context to his solo records as the structures are more like expansive well designed hip hop-friendly songs you'd hear on the radio with the improvising here and there peeking through on a track such as the affecting ‘Requiem for an Insomniac’. Lynn Hill’s role is vital and on a track such as ‘Capacity’ the anger boiling up explodes in one of the most hard-hitting tracks. It’s an album about "dreaming in colour" that the nightmare can end somehow and that ‘normalcy’ and peace can prevail; and yet that hope may well be in vain or at best remains unresolved. Clearly the healing has not yet begun. SG

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Gregory Porter, Liquid Spirit, Blue Note

From 2013. Everyone who hears this record will want to talk about it and hit replay. The same happened with Water, and especially Be Good. And it doesn’t matter that Gregory Porter is on a big label now, the magic is still there. Not every song here …

Published: 25 Dec 2019. Updated: 3 years.

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From 2013. Everyone who hears this record will want to talk about it and hit replay. The same happened with Water, and especially Be Good. And it doesn’t matter that Gregory Porter is on a big label now, the magic is still there. Not every song here is a classic, however, that would be a bit much to ask, but the positive ‘No Love Dying’ is; and so too the moving song-of-regret ‘Water Under Bridges’. Not to forget ‘Wind Song’. But possibly best of all and prepare yourself for a sensory overload on the tearjerker ‘Wolfcry’. Title song ‘Liquid Spirit’ is a gospelised grower once you move properly into its 'Wade in the Water' ambience past the hand claps, and the band throughout is as workman-like and real as before.

Musical director Chip Crawford on keyboards understands the Californian instinctively; and alto saxman Yosuke Sato has the right attitude particularly on the title track. Bassist Aaron James in the catchy ‘Liquid Spirit’ outro crys out to be sampled a good deal. ‘Hey Laura’ has that youthful innocence someone like Gregory’s friend Jamie Cullum used to capture so well at the start of his career, while ‘Musical Genocide’ by contrast is a complicated song about the validity of older styles of black music. It’s where Porter really starts to testify and the alto and tenor sax response chorus to the “I do not agree” part is embued with a visceral near-eastern raggedy quality that’s very effective. Again I guess this latter bit will be sampled. ‘When Love Was King’ relates to the same socio-political-religious side of Porter’s musical personality as ‘1960 What?’ endowed with the compelling story-telling dimension he does so well. ‘Wolfcry’, which follows ‘Musical Genocide’, is the big love song on the album, where Porter goes deepest and the lyrics go into another sphere: “After I have saved you/and gathered all the pieces of your heart/that’s when it starts/then you gain your confidence/and leave your innocence/and vulnerability with me.” ‘Brown Grass’, again a song of regret, fundamentally, is also about admission, “now I’m open wide to the truth I’ve left behind/a love so hard to find/now I find myself falling down on brown grass.” The very 1970s piano intro to ‘Wind Song’ is a joy, and Porter’s use of the higher part of his register gives this veritable road song an urgency and emotion not found anywhere else on the album.

Liquid Spirit is an album with some thoughtful and sincere lyrics throughout on the original songs, a facet of Porter’s artistry that is easy to forget about given the majesty of his voice. I’m not amazingly taken by the version of the Page brothers’ ‘The "In" Crowd’ but next song the rootsy and hooky break-up song ‘Movin’' (with drummer Emanuel Harrold key) and again the horn arrangements shine. The refrain “movin’ in the wrong direction/so far away from me” rewards your patience. In a good room this song will fly. When Porter adds the extra word or two, like “lady” or “yeah, yeah”, as the song develops it’s the Lou Rawls side of his performance craft that comes through, and then the horns practically dance. The sobering line: “What does it mean when you say you want to be free?” the clever come down. ‘I Fall in Love Too Easily’ at the end feels brand new. SG