Groove Collective
Omonimo ('93)

“Dancing jazz”. Or “Groove Oriented Nightmares”, better yet: “Trombones on Acid”.

I bought this album in a second-hand store, years ago, due to an inevitable Pavlovian impulse, after hearing just about 60 seconds of it in headphones. The “Groove Collective” are a New York-based band of 10 young, vaguely human beings who compose, perform, and chameleonically change, night after night, an undefinable type of music ranging from Zappa to Techno Dance bands; from influences of pan-Arab league anthems to Frank Rosolino. All on a base of very-deep-groove managed by a rhythm section composed of: Johnatan Maron, an electric bassist who doesn’t budge for a moment from the fever of the hypnotic groove, chosen each time from a slew of simple yet catchy and musical loops; Genji Siraisi, a drummer as essential as he is powerfully eccentric and precise in accompaniments and the choice of the element to hit, as well as the right moment to do it; Itaal Shur, a pianist primarily stationed at the Fender Rhodes, with incursions into the acoustic neighborhood or effect-laden as desired and depending on the quality of smoke currently on the market. The other members are: Chris Theberge on percussion, Gordon Clay on percussion and rap-voice, Fabio Morgera on trumpet and flugelhorn, Jay Rodriguez on sax and clarinet, Josh Roseman on trombone and toy-sax, Bill Ware on vibraphone and percussion, Richard Worth on flute and various other wind instruments. It’s not a genre of music I frequent much. And it’s the only GC album I have, but I would like to eventually find all the other albums following this first one, which reveals a freshness of intent, an absolutely original proposition exactly mediating between pelvic dance needs and intellectual needs (that is, music both good to dance and to think to).

1) “Renstrike” starts with the first fifteen seconds entrusted to the needle of an old gramophone which, with its crackles and fryings, takes you straight to the ’40s, only to invade the room with this huge but precise and clean bass, to which the winds and piano join for something indefinable that slowly grabs the rear pass of your pants and lifts you up until you start moving your tired behind. 2) “Balimka” features the vibraphone, with a side of contrapuntally arranged wind instruments. Gong thirty years later. With much grace and taste. 3) “Nerd” begins on a dreamy base of bass, drums, and Fender piano upon which a thoroughly enjoyable rap sets in; personally, I hate rap and similar, but here it’s about an integrated performance and part of a sonic magma that flows and engulfs you. I could even grow two dreadlocks, if my hair allowed it. The tracks are very intricate, and you can feel the large participation of the audience… yes because this first album was genuinely and directly recorded live, demanded by popular demand, in a New York club!!! 4) “Rahsaanasong” represents an attempt to redefine fast swing and a homage to the music of the seventies: Soft Machine meets Roland Kirk or something of the sort. Three hundred km/h with a sax planted in one ear and a Fender piano under the right hand; the vibraphone carves rapidly. Roy Orbison and Milt Jackson might appreciate and widen their big eyes. Still Zappa in the head. 5) “Ms. Grier” is a highly choral and orchestrated track; it features several ensemble parts where the winds present the theme, and the electric piano improvises crystal clear on this soft carpet of bass and drums notes and a series of chords make you “levitate” high. The bakers’ piece. 6) “Watchugot” could fit seamlessly on a Ryuichi Sakamoto album and serves as the ideal soundtrack for an incognito evening outing to get lost somewhere, with the car moving but Ligabue and Max Gazzè far from us. Shiny mulatto butts in shorts shaking sweaty on a precarious cube in a club and music at 126 dB spl at 1 m! Chic, EW&F, and female voices. 7) “El golpè avisà” starts with a delicate piccolo but proceeds and develops into a dreamlike delirium that lasts 10 minutes and involves you. A dream that lasts a day. 8) “Genji Monogatari” is another expression of very high-level and concentration choral expression. Complex orchestration and vibraphonic cornucopia, once again assembled with beautiful flute parts. 9) “Buddah head” takes us back to the realm of the rap world and uncompromising funky. With a sacrilegious and much-applauded ending. 10) “Saturday afternoon” starts with a slow and penetrating bass loop that drags behind a hypnotic drum for an afternoon journey through the deserted city streets, where a bass clarinet pays a respectful yet lively homage to Eric Dolphy, while your hips continue to sway. If you are under thirty. Otherwise, like the humble scribe, you’ll have long since been sitting sipping lemonade, with a satisfied face and ears happy to deal with insinuating, sonorous, mellifluous, original, and round sound waves.

Beautiful album. The direct precursor to Kneebody. No less valid, though: if you want something new and beautiful, even if recorded in... ’93 and if you’ve already had a pleasant surprise with Kneebody and miss the old Frank Zappa, the one from 'Waka Jawaka' and 'The Grand Wazoo', buy this incredible album!!!!! And maybe also buy the subsequent ones, and let me know later…