My review of Robin Eubanks + Mental Images' kick-ass kLassik rocK, vol. 1, today at All About Jazz.

While jazz purists like to think that the artists they love have always been into jazz and nothing else, the truth is often more than a little different: not only have most jazz artists who grew up in the '60s and beyond been unalterably impacted by more than just the jazz music of their time, but they remain fans of music beyond the genre's broadest purview. Yes, there are purists, but most musicians—irrespective of the style of music upon which they focus as performers and writers—are not just jazz fans, they're music fans, plain and simple. So it's no particular surprise to find trombonist Robin Eubanks—longtime collaborator with bassist Dave Holland and the SFJAZZ Collective, amongst many other projects—writing, in his brief liner notes to kLassik rocK vol. 1, that this is a recording, "I've wanted to make for several years...it combines my musical roots with my musical present to create a direction I'd like to develop into the future."

That Eubanks' musical roots range from the soulful funk of Sly and the Family Stone to the psychedelic space-blues of guitar god Jimi Hendrix should be no surprise to any who've heard his experimentation with electric trombone, Eubanks clearly aiming to expand the possibilities of his instrument just as Hendrix did. Those familiar with Eubanks' Live Vol. 1 (RKM, 2007)—his EB3 trio creating sounds in performance that would seem unbelievable except that the included DVD made visible the trio's many uncanny achievements, including both Eubanks and drummer Kenwood Dennard playing their primary instruments and keyboards simultaneously—already know, from the heavily flanged, overdriven and delay-drenched trombone of "Blues for Jimi Hendrix," that Eubanks' roots extend far beyond even the furthest outer reaches of jazz. kLassik rocK vol. 1 simply renders the trombonist's roots even clearer, with a set that, in addition to five Eubanks originals, includes two Led Zeppelin tunes ("Kashmir" and "The Ocean"), one Sly and the Family Stone smash ("Thank You") and a Hendrix hit ("Fire").


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