Ode to the Living Tree

In December 1994, a 55-year-old Andrew Cyrille made his first trip to Africa. First, Cyrille and a group of fellow jazzmen traveled to Ghana to perform at a festival. Then they ventured to Senegal, where they recorded Ode to the Living Tree in a Dakar studio. It isn't every day that jazz improvisers from the U.S. record in Senegal; most of the music that is recorded there is either contemporary African pop or traditional African tribal music. But then, African-American music (jazz as well as blues, rock, and funk) has greatly influenced African pop — so it makes perfect sense that a studio in Dakar would roll out the carpet for visiting musicians from the United States. According to Cyrille, this historic CD was the first jazz session ever recorded in Senegal, where the drummer leads an inspired, cohesive quintet that employs David Murray on tenor sax and bass clarinet, Oliver Lake on alto sax, Adegoke Steve Colson on electric piano, and Fred Hopkins on bass. With such a cast, Ode could have easily been very left of center. But the performances are generally quite melodic; in fact, Ode is essentially an album of inside/outside post-bop (in the John Coltrane/Jackie McLean/Yusef Lateef vein) rather than ultra-radical, ultra-dissonant free jazz. Murray's tenor is downright lyrical on the peaceful ballad "So That Life Can Endure...P.S. With Love," and a strong sense of melody also defines everything from Murray's moody "Dakar Darkness" to Colson's Brazilian-influenced "Midnight Samba." Coltrane's music is a priority; the musicians bring a lot of passion to "Mr. P.C." as well as a 19-minute medley consisting of "Acknowledgment" and "Resolution" (both from A Love Supreme). Although not as radical as some of Cyrille's other work, Ode to the Living Tree is an excellent CD that he should be proud of.