Ben Allison
Cowboy Justice

“Cowboy Justice” is not for the faint of heart; starting with the rather unusual lineup of guitar (Steve Cardenas), trumpet (Ron Horton), drums (Michael Sarin), and double bass (Ben Allison). The cover you see for this review is a fake, in the sense that the copy I have and am reviewing is an “advanced copy” without any cover, and it was given to me by Ben Allison himself at a concert held in my town some time ago.

Therefore, the sounds that come from this album are very dry, and there are no easy concessions to the prevailing treacle or to any “trend” (what a word: blaaah!) possible in jazz at the moment. Ron's trumpet sounds very “Miles”, in the sense of long or succinct notes but almost always in the middle register, very little vibrato, many Spanish-like phrases (a constant returning theme in Davis’s poetics and anyway, the trumpet always gives you an idea of a Latin party in the square!) and average volume, at least in most of the tracks.

The group manages to be very hard as well when the guitar comes to the forefront and at times there are echoes of both the beautiful "Bass Desires” (Marc Johnson) and the best Fripp. Cardenas comes from a rock school (also given his age and his declared love for it!) and this influence is felt both in McLaughlin-like arpeggios (from the Mahavishnu period) and in the use of a slightly distorted Gibson 347 (Scofield). The approach proposed by Ben Allison's double bass is always very distinctive, in the sense that Ben is not an “uncritical swing machine”: he is a man and musician who constantly maintains control of the situation and the beat is somehow instantaneous yet continuous: it seems like every beat makes history on its own; yet it flows and moves. This is also due to Ben's particular technical formation, as he learned to play almost entirely by himself after very few formal lessons and for this reason, he plays “in profile” looking at the right side of the double bass (he can afford it, since he is very tall!).

In the final track, there is a brief “letting go” by Michael Sarin, who reconfirms himself as one of the best drummers around, endowed with a very varied and prodigious technique that allows him to range freely over the instrument to achieve very modern sounds even from a standard drum set. Maybe playing on the edges of the drums or inserting brushes inside the hi-hat cymbals and tinkering with the rhythm there for three minutes (and all of us silent as we listen to this beautiful and somehow musical thing!).

A few words should be well-spent praising Ben Allison, founder of the Jazz Composers Collective in New York along with Ted Nash, Frank Kimbrough, Michael Blake, Ron Horton, and others. Ben is a composer with grit, and this album is the latest in the saga that sees him as the protagonist. He has recorded several albums as the leader with his group “Medicine Wheel”: the “medicine wheel” of Native Indian shamans, from whom he partly descends if the one writing hasn’t misunderstood! Among his albums, all very beautiful, truly innovative, intelligent, enjoyable, and therefore highly recommended, in Italy the very low-priced “Peace Pipe”, which is truly a gem of East-West Africa multiculturalism, with a Kora played by Mamadou Diabate along with Tomas Ulrich’s cello and Michael Blake’s saxophones etc.

In your spare time, have a read about the history and characteristics of the JCC and Ben: www.jazzcollective.com and www.benallison.com Let us do justice to these artists; maybe a “Cowboy Justice”!

Tracklist: Cowboy Justice, Tricky Dick, Talking Heads, Hey Man, Emergency, Midnight Cowboy, Free Tricky, Weeary, Ruby's Roundabout, Blabbermouth.