Charnett Moffett - Music from Our Soul

The Guardian 80

(Motema)

The energetic New York bass innovator Charnett Moffett worked with the siblings Wynton and Branford Marsalis in the 1980s, on Ornette Coleman’s acclaimed 90s Sound Museum albums, and has recently embraced Middle Eastern and Asian music, too (his dad, Charles Moffett, played drums for Coleman in the 60s). In a dynamic if occasionally disjointed celebration of all that rich history, Charnett Moffett fronts an eminent cast here, including sax legend Pharoah Sanders on four live tracks, and old sidekicks Stanley Jordan (guitar), Cyrus Chestnut (piano) and drums star Jeff “Tain” Watts. Moffett’s reverberating electric hums and percussive thunderings (a cross between Jaco Pastorius and Eberhard Weber) mix with acoustic subtleties such as his intro to a tempo-switching Mood Indigo, and there are Coltranesque laments and hair-raising abstract blitzes from Sanders, sleek lyricism from Jordan and vivacious segues from chord-punching swing to splashy free-jazz from Chestnut. Moments of Weather Reportish brooding, Bollywood pop, and hooky Mediterranean dances join an engaging Moffett attempt to embrace a long and winding personal journey in a series of telling flashes.