A Lush And Lively Record from The Elliott Caine Quintet
A fresh release from The Elliott Caine Quintet delivers a sort of hard-hitting approach to jazz, which is technically considered hard bop, and I love the way it brings in elements of samba, swing, classic jazz approaches, and the whole thing manages to pack this robust punch that really pulls you into it, and it all comes with such deep-pocketed grooves and rhythms that you can't really hold yourself back.
A lot of this stuff makes you want to move your body, and I really dig that aspect of it as well. You can get into the swing of things really quickly and really easily, and Elliott himself really leads this quintet with a powerhouse performance on the trumpet and flugelhorn, but the guys he's got performing with him on this record are absolutely ridiculous as well.
The record is dubbed Furiositee!, and the whole album opens up with that title track.
Right off the bat, you have sort of ferocious pianos that just give you the smooth kind of rhythm, but overlaying those are these great riffs coming from what feels like both saxophone and trumpet, and that riff is super memorable.
These are all original pieces, by the way. As far as I know, these are written and composed by Elliott, who definitely took the time to dig into some of these groups heavily, starting with this initial single.
The percussion on this track is outstanding, and this is one of the ones that really gives you some of that samba rhythm. He's going off on the cymbals and really just letting them be a super key element in the flow of the track itself.
Of course, there are great sections for each instrument to open up and do their thing solo-wise, and everyone's got soul, heart, and this technical ability that just blows your mind half the time.
"East of the Sun" most certainly features some of my favorite saxophone performances and comes through with a smooth and silky soundscape, calm and relaxing rhythm, but still packs a little bit of that sort of punch.
I think that's a huge element to why this record works the way it does. There is punch to a lot of it. There's an energy level that's just sort of up there, and you feed into that as you listen to the record.
I feel like that energy is completely infectious, and it's songs like this one where you can really get a sense for how each performer on this record has a complete and full understanding of not just their instrument, but the dynamic of how the song is supposed to come through aesthetically.
Again, you can hear this smoothness, but there's still a little extra in terms of hints of excitement that lurk just beneath the surface.
It's fun because after hearing a few tracks on the record, you feel like they're really in their swing, and they know when to hold back, focus a little bit more on melody than riffing and laying out juicy solos, and it just goes to show you that all of these guys know exactly what they're doing.
Listening to records like this lets you really soak in moods, and a lot of the songs do create some great moods.
"Blue Reflection" is an amazing track, and although I'm not perfect at depicting horn instruments, I feel like this opening is a funeral horn, and it's just beyond ridiculous.
A lot of the song is intense sort of riffing, and that energy is a bit mid-range here. It's not through the roof or over the top, but it's not completely smooth either.
The piano work is astounding on a lot of this record, and most of the time it's used as this sort of colorful rhythm instrument, which really comes through with a liveliness as well.
Listening to a record like this one puts you in a certain state of mind.
They are songs that have very particular flows to them that feel completely natural somehow.
As always, there are elements of improvisation, or at least it seems that way. However, a lot of the arrangements are laid out with precision. The changes are brilliant and help the songs unfold in a way that, again, feels totally natural and lets you sort of flow alongside them.
I think my favorite aspect about this record, aside from the astounding performances here, is how these guys created an atmosphere with what they're doing.
They built out this record that balances the punchy, hard bop aspects and the smooth flows, along with some of the semi-samba undertones rhythmically, and I think that the blend of all those approaches together on one record lets it all unravel in such a cool way.
It's a release that makes you feel like you're there in the room watching them perform it.
A haze of smoke filling a dimly lit room, waitresses and dresses walking around offering drinks, little round tables with red cloths hanging down; it's all there.
Of course, that's just my mind. That's where my head goes when I hear stuff like this.
This is an album I listened to walking around a small city, and it's really amazing to hear how music like this can control the vibe of what you're looking at and where you are.
For me, listening to this album made walking around the city feel almost cinematic in a very strange way.
It felt like there were backstories left and right. I could almost sense people's characteristics or what conversations they were having.
This is an album that tells a story instrumentally. It tells a bunch of stories instrumentally.
Everyone who listens to it is going to pull in a different story from it, but still, these are stories all the same.
All in all, this was definitely immersive and super fun, amazingly arranged and performed with heart, rhythm, and a love for their crafts.
Elliott Caine performs the flugelhorn and trumpet, while Scott Gilman is on tenor sax, Michael Boito on the piano, Bill Marcus on double bass, Don Littleton on trap drums, and Victor Baez playing the percussion on a few songs off the record, including the title track, "Furiositee."
Hopefully, I got everyone there, but either way, this is not a record you want to miss, and I would dig into all eight songs right in a row, one after the other. It's a great experience.
So, it's time to dig into this. Remember where you heard it first.
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