Christina Dahl - Heartbeats (2006)

Ever wonder what a mythical jam session between the Sun Ra Arkestra and P-Funk at their respective freaky peaks would sound like? European saxophonist Christina Dahl apparently has, though her live big-band album lacks the full-on free jazz abandon of the former and the lysergic weirdness of the latter. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because following the chanting, percussion-heavy martial stomp of the opening title track and the soul-jazz groove of "Listen to Your Heart," things move into a calmer direction that proves considerably more fruitful than an entire album of ersatz Sun Ra funk would have been. A pair of ballads that recall the lyrical side of electric Miles Davis, some New Orleans bounce and the epic, spacy "Let Loose," featuring an extended synthesizer solo of a type not often heard since the early '70s, are simultaneously excitingly fresh and properly respectful of tradition. That's a combination that hasn't been seen much since Rahsaan Roland Kirk died, and it makes Free Your Mind one of the finest modern jazz releases of 2006. ~ Stewart Mason