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David Dyson - Soulmates |
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Listen
to this, his first solo album, and you can hear certain influences at
work. "My parents took
me to concerts all the time: Earth, Wind & Fire; Billy Preston;
Rufus with Chaka Khan; Parliament with Bootsy on bass -- the list goes
on and on. What first
geared me toward jazz was Herbie Hancock's “Headhunters”; I was nine
years old when I heard it, and it knocked me out." David
was also heavily influenced by Louis Johnson and Stanley Clarke. Like
these players, he’s stretching the boundaries here and some of the CD
is a challenge, but let me run it down for you track by track… Badlands
is a busy groove with the upfront sax of labelmate Marshall Keys
all over it. We already get
the layers of bass and the funky accents you’d expect on this type of
CD right from the first bars of the tune. 95
North opens with a more natural drum sound and busy bassline,
overlaid with the kind of gauzy fretless sound you’d hear from Mark
Egan. The overall effect is
quite dreamy until the sax solo and sound effects break it up.
The fade, like one or two on the CD, is a little sudden. The ballad, Soulmates,
has a very powerful multi-tracked bass melody.
Playing lyrically is the real strength of David Dyson.
You never forget this is a bass-player’s album! If you’ve heard “Voices
of Wisdom” on Pieces of a Dream’s “Pieces”
album, this homage to heroes of funk and fusion will make you smile!
On Way Back When, we get a lazy keyboard-led groove which
feels like a summer’s day. Bootsy Collins gets a namecheck here and the Bootsy-type
solo will give old P. Funk fans (like me) a warm glow – my
favourite track on this album. The exotic Interference
features some more effects-laden soloing over a
mid-tempo beat. I
love this cut until the break, where the momentum is lost – it’s a
pity it veers off the way it does. The sound waves on a
beach and more dreamy fretless open Secret Sands.
The electronic beat is slow but too staccato to do justice to the
lovely lyrical playing. A
very old-fashioned synth solo sounds right at home here.
Drift away… A more acid-jazz beat,
with organ and the album’s only real vocal, courtesy of John
Stoddart. Spin Cycle
would make a great single, if it hasn’t already. The long keyboard intro
to Time Will Heal should tell you that more fretless playing
follows, it’s the same dreamy quality as Secret Sands.
This opens out into a gentle reggae-type groove, but really this
could be Secret Sands part 2. The tone hardens a lot on
Vixen. Marshall
Keys’ horn sound has shades of Wayne Shorter and the
overall sound is as adventurous as much of Weather Report’s
music. This track is for
deep bass fans – and I mean deep in every sense! On Aftermath, the
handclapping rhythm track and those sinuous fretless lines just don’t
work for me and I’d happily go to the next track.
A filler. Lena’s Lullaby
is a more purposeful track, and rather grand.
Melody is played on the bass, with an underlying vocal.
The line is sparse but studio techniques give it a huge acoustic
and it sticks in your mind for that alone.
The synthetic drum sound lets it down a little – I’d love to
hear this live! Daring players, like Brian
Bromberg, often include a solo bass improvisation in their set.
Lonely Daze is a fitting title for the closing piece here
– one man, one bass, but a lot to say. Bearing in mind the
obvious influences on Dyson’s playing, I’ll be very keen to
hear his next CD. On a
personal note, I’d love to hear him and Marcus Johnson
collaborate on a P. Funk tribute album.
Just listen to track 4 a few times and imagine… Marimelj
Records 54423 – Executive Producers David Dyson and Marcus
Johnson |
