In The Tradition - Sirius! (2012)

In The Tradition is the name of a group of Detroit-area musicians who perform essentially straightahead jazz in a variety of instrumental combinations. Olujimi Tafataona, an instructor of truck-driving by day, serves as its leader. He also composes and arranges for the band, along with performing on several woodwind instruments. Although the album notes for Sirius emphasize jazz’s Africa-derived aspects and the band does sometimes employ African percussion instruments and rhythms, much of the two-disk set is devoted to standards and tunes by Curtis Fuller, Freddie Hubbard, Donald Byrd, Wayne Shorter, and even funkster James Brown and the Brazilian Luiz Bonfá. Further, a pair of Tafataona’s originals are themselves orthodox bossa novas. But keyboardist Foluke Sheareri’s “Kukumba” features percussionist Kefentse Chika’s skillful playing of the African instrument the Djembe and “A PanAfrikan Prayer (Bridge to Tommorow),” credited to the leader and Aurora Harris, spotlights Harris’s spoken-word performance that “speaks to the centuries of African exploitation and abuse.” Buoyed by a strong rhythm section, the band displays great gusto, although the ensemble lacks precision at times and intonation can be questionable. The quality of the improvised solos is uneven also, but some are quite good. Tafataona’s husky-toned tenor fill-ins behind soulful, surefooted vocalist Imari Jendayi on “I Thought About You” are especially expressive. Copyright 2012 Cadence Media, LCC All rights reserve