Need's Got To Be So Deep

The Need's Got To Be So Deep The pursuit of purity is the pursuit of a state or of a body that is free of contamination by other elements. Socially speaking, the pursuit of purity is also the pursuit of mad men and women ruled by fear of the other. The vain pursuit of purity is a Sisyphean pursuit at best, whether in the formation of a more perfect union of state interests, or a cultural expression such as music. The project of American jazz music has often been marked by pursuits of purity that have led to debates about what the idiom actually is-or isn't. Be it the tensions between a pre-modern traditional jazz and Bebop or the shock of the new, as Miles Davis moved from Kind of Blue to Bitches Brew and the electronic versus acoustic instrument debate ensued. Other questions over the form, content and purity of Jazz have reflected the race, class, gender and other anxieties of the culture (and the purist). Is the music being played in the tradition or out? Can white men jump-in jazz? Should Jazz draw only from the wooden ladle of black American blues or the marble fountain of European classical music? Can Jazz groove-with gravitas? Can a woman really play? Can the chops of an academy-trained jazz musician be found on the bandstand or in their refrigerator? Is the 'girl singer' a musician? Somewhere at this moment two or more are gathered in a spirited, passionate discussion over these issues and questions about the Jazz idiom. Throughout The Need's Got To Be So Deep, Darryl Harper declares his conceptual, technical, compositional, and historical authority and command, and makes his perspective on what jazz is and it's possibilities brilliantly apparent. Yusef Lateef's bop-flavored composition Water Pistol, performed by the trio of Harper with longtime Onus collaborators Matthew Parish and Harry Butch Reed is filled with the polyphonic bass of Parish, wise and lively percussion of Reed, and the melodic voicing of Harper reminding us of their presence as anchors for the ensemble of musicians on The Need's Got To Be So Deep. One of the questions posed by Harper on his 2013 recording, The Edenfred Files, is how can a duo be an ensemble? Answers to that question abound in The Need's Got To Be So Deep. Some of the freshest, most exciting and explorative playing and listening experiences on The Need's Got To Be So Deep occur where only two players are featured. There are eight duos among the fifteen tracks of this two-disc recording. Four of these duos combine Harper's clarinet with the playing of the phenomenal composer-pianist and conceptually fluid Helen Sung; pianist-composer Kevin Harris's Scrapbook; Free Jazz forerunner Carla Bley's Postures; Ayn Inserto's compositional sandbox for mature musicians titled Playtime and Sung's own composition Prelude and Fugue-like. Harper's extended composition, Dances for Outcasts, comprises yet two more of these tracks. Prodigal Son and The Fugitive are kinetic works dynamically interpreted by percussionist I-Jen Fang on marimba and master violinist Regina Carter. Notably, Anthem for Unity, the clarinet and acoustic guitar duo between Harper and it's composer, guitarist Freddie Bryant, is a glorious cause for repeated listening. The recurring phrases of the song, the narrative moods created by it's various sections, and the playing of Harper and Bryant are at once joyfully dynamic and peaceful. The refreshing satisfaction of each duo attuned this listener's ear to some specific relations between players in Harper's larger ensembles on The Need's Got to Be So Deep. Tale of a Suburban Cowboy, the grand opening track written by pianist Xavier Davis, characterized by a spirited dialogue throughout the piece between Harper and the nimble fingering and harmonics of the musically multilingual pianist Lefteris Kordis, is one of a number of blues-affected compositions that bring a complex groove with the layered sophistication, power and sweetness of familiar associations between players. The deep and dramatic shifts in tone and texture between each movement of Greg Bullen