Brain Blade and The Fellowship Band - Season of Changes
Monday, August 11th, 2008I knew of Brian Blade through the work he did on Daniel Lanois solo records and live shows. Apparently he has also played drums on albums and tours for Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan as well as Wayne Shorter. All good stuff. To cut to the chase Season of Changes is by far my favorite album of the year, which is saying something because my guys the Black Crowes released an album that you can argue is the second best effort of their career. It is most certainly a jazz record but it doesnt feel like jazz to me. These arent just themes and chords here, The Fellowship band is dealing in loose and atmospheric songs however jazz like they might be. The albums third track Stoner Hill is going onto my list of Top 40 favorite tunes of all time. I have always loved Brain Blades drumming with Daniel Lanois. In those sessions he plays much less smoothly matching the violence and and unpredictability of Lanois live sound, but he plays so much differently here. He leads his band like a true old school hard bop band leader, he seems to direct every note of every song using fills that to me dont sound improvised. Do you ever notice that sometimes a song is perfect? Everything is perfect, not just the structure of the song or the lyrics or even the melody but all of the extra stuff thrown into a song for texture and balance, little vocal fills, drum fills, excess guitar runs, even mistakes. You listen to that song enough times and you cant imagine that song being played any other way. You see the band live and they leave out a few of those extra things and the song just doesnt hit you the same way. Thats what the whole of Season of Changes is like. allmusic.com gave it 4 1/2 stars but i dont see where there is room for improvement. A tremendous example of what music, true and pure music, can be. Unfortunately we dont get every many of those these days.
