I am quite happy I picked this up, it's extremely well played and a ton of fun. The music never explodes; Watanabe is not John McLaughlin or Larry Coryell and clearly doesn't want to be. But it never devolves into smooth glop either. The primary credit for this goes to the rhythm section of Richard Bona (bass) and Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez (drums). On every track they play complicated, interlocking rhythms, often at high speed. Even the mellowest cuts on the record never melt into the baby shit smooth bass slides and quarter note side of the snare taps that signify elevator jazz. Carla Bley's tune Lawns is the first slow song on Mo Bop III, and despite the sort of traditionally smooth bass tone and drumming style it never goes gloopy because there’s this back of the mind sensation that the players are champing at the bit to let fly. Something in the way the band bites at the downbeat connotes more energy than is being shown without making it sound like they don't know how to play the tune. There's a similar effect in Infancia courtesy of Hernandez's surprisingly heavy foot (for the tune) on his bass drum; the massive thuds help keep us out of syrup territory.
Watanabe deserves credit too, as bandleader the buck stops with him and the arrangements on both originals and covers continually set a crazy busy rhythm section against sustained guitar notes that such that the melody feels significantly slower than the rhythm, at least until Watanabe starts soloing and you realize he was keeping time perfectly, the drums and bass were just significantly more subdivided than the guitar. They're also a whole lot more syncopated than the guitar on Manhattan Flu Dance, which is a great effect.
I'm not kidding when I say Watanabe uses that trick on every one of the album's nine songs, he also has percussion open things with a bang on pretty much every track. So you could argue it's a formula except that the record's not samey sounding. Though the approach of the band doesn’t vary much (largely dense, busy, and uptempo), the compositions and playing choices on each are different enough that every song stands out while still hanging together as a coherent whole. There's a unity of tone as well, those zillion dollar guitars and basses earn their keep with absolutely gorgeous sound, perfectly captured by engineer Doug Epstein. Watanabe's also mastered the always cool trick of somehow seamlessly sliding from a very pretty, slightly echoey tone into distortion, transforming the solo's grit quotient in an instant. Somewhere In Time makes the best use of his comfort in playing both sonic spaces; it sounds like the other songs until they hit the B section and get downright nasty, with Watanabe adopting a sick distorted tone. The acoustic guitar on the outro is a nice arranging touch as well.
More quality musicianship: percussionist Cyro Baptista is his usual excellent self on each of the four tracks he plays on. He shows his versatility too, proving equally adept at being loud and upfront on Emboss, Somewhere In Time, and Manhattan Flu Dance while quietly adding color in the background of Infancia--at least until he and Hernandez share a killer percussion jam following an equally killer bass solo.
So yeah, not as raucous as I usually like my jazz, but this is one high quality record. I'm going to have to dig further into Watanabe. Discogs says there's plenty more where this came from, two more Mo' Bop albums by this trio and a raft of other releases as both leader and sideman. He's had a longer career than I thought, too: going by the album pics I'd've pegged him for mid-30s at the time of recording (2006) but he was actually 53. His first album came out back in 1971 and even a quick look at his credits show's he's worked with Bill Bruford, Ryuichi Sakomoto, and Jaco Pastorius. Lots to look forward too!
Comments