Josh Roseman Unit - Treats for the Nightwalker

[mke]

Chuckyd4 (I think) gives a review here (I don't get the references to smooth, though).

I like this album quite a bit. Lots and lots of musicians in a rotating line-up, fairly broad stylistically (there's a nice reggae track, for example), lots of intricate writing, groovy/fusiony beats, some good blowing. In a nutshell, it's the '00s descendant of M-Base.

[chuckyd4]

Mwanji requested that I stop in here and try to explain what I meant with the "smooth" reference in my review. In no way did I mean that Treats is somehow a smooth jazz album. I just meant that some of the rhythmic work and electronic textures on the disc remind me of where I always understood early smooth albums to be coming from. When I think of '70's Grover Washington Jr. albums, for instance, I think of an attempt to take the freedom of jazz improvisation and tie it in to some other more commercial influences; the idea (in my mind) was not a bad one at all - in an era of jazz mostly polarized between outspoken abstract jazz and outspoken retro jazz, it was an attempt to connect with an audience either alienated or bored by such divisions. In particular, there were rhythmic ideas that were designed to connect to a young, African-American audience that had looked elsewhere for their party music for the better part of two decades.

The point I was trying to make was that Treats seemed to successfully straddle a similar kind of divide to my ears. I'm really not sure if Josh agrees with me or thinks I'm way out of left field on this, though I did get an e-mail back from him when I sent the link to him, and he didn't ask any questions about it (though maybe that was just politeness). What Mwanji said is really a good capsule of how I felt about the album - a great stylistic mix that never seems forced, with fantastic solos and some really interesting rhythmic stuff going on.

[Miles]

I don't have much to add to what's been said, but I have to say that, having bought this disc last week, it is generally excellent.

[mke]

Thanks for explaining that, chuckyd4.

Taking the commercial and making it uncommercial is often an interesting process.