Chicago Soul Jazz Collective - On the Way to be Free (2022)

The Chicago Soul Jazz Collective with the city’s own grand dame of jazz Dee Alexander waste no time in rousing us with the opening track “Mama Are We There Yet?” from the band’s third album, sustaining the bristling energy throughout On the Way to Be Free. The seven-piece band is co-led by principal writer and tenor saxophonist John Fournier and trumpeter Marques Carroll. Featured guest Alexander is a fully rounded, versatile vocalist who has honored the idiom’s traditions with shows dedicated to Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, and Ella Fitzgerald while also undertaking groundbreaking work with Chicago’s famed progressive AACM. She can be sassy, graceful, or angry in a Nina Simone protest style. Listen to the scorching “The Man Is Coming Back” to appreciate the latter.

Fournier’s compositions lyrically reflect the same kinds of topics of the vaunted soul-jazz era of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Tunes like Cannonball Adderley’s “I Wish I Knew How It Feels to Be Free” or Les McCann and Eddie Harris’ “Compared to What” would fit well within this same repertoire which has its share of funk, neo-soul, and classic Crusaders-like grooves. Given Chicago’s storied history of gospel music, those strains creep in every so often too. Listen to Alexander absolutely wail on hymn-like “Carry Me.” Surely, these musicians can bring it down to sultry simmer too as they do on “So Alive” and even more so on “Sweet Things.” Aside from the anger already cited in the most visceral protest song “The Man is Coming Back,” the album is uplifting, as it calls for unity and a more hopeful future. Think of the vibe that characterized the Academy Award winning documentary Summer of Soul. This is contemporary version of that same feeling.

Fournier wrote all but one of the nine tunes here, several as mentioned in search of solace or freedom. In “On the Way to Be Free” the ocean provides the sanctuary whereas in “Carry Me” the search becomes a universal yearning and in “Sweet Things” there is a promise to shield one from evil or harm. There are some deviations too such as honoring the aforementioned band in “Behind the Crusaders” and the closing “Nothin Good Ever Goes Away,” both fully instrumental pieces that allow for stretched-out expressive solos. The one non-Fournier penned song “Crazy Wrong,” penned by guitarist/vocalist Larry Brown Jr., goes in a different direction. It’s a classic R&B-sounding late-night sensual tale of temptation with the author singing with Alexander as Carroll takes a soulful solo in the break.

The ensemble lives up to its name with insistent, relentless grooves and brief solos mostly from Carroll, Brown Jr., and occasionally Fournier. Rounding out the rest of the unit are drummer Keith Brooks II, keyboardist Amr Fahmy, percussionist Victor Garcia, and bassist Andrew Vogt. Together they build a vibrant bridge between the classic era of soul jazz and a fresh approach that keeps this music so timeless.