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John Carroll Kirby - Conflict (2020)

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Deva Premal - Om Meditation (2020) [Hi-Res]

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Victor Bailey - That's Right! (2002)

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While he has made his mark in the fusion world as a featured sideman in such high powered groups as Weather Report, Weather Update, Steps Ahead, the Urban Knights, Petite Blonde, the Bill Evans Group and Zawinul Syndicate, at the heart of Victor Bailey’s bass playing is Philly funk and soul. He demonstrates that deep, groove-conscious quality on his third release as a leader, That’s Right (ESC Records).

Accompanied by an all-star cast of characters, including saxophonist Bill Evans, drummers Lenny White and Omar Hakim, guitarist Dean Brown, keyboardist Jim Beard and special guest Benny Maupin on tenor sax and bass clarinet, Bailey’s latest is a solid followup to 1999’s "Low Blow” (ESC Records) and completes the promise of his 1989 debut, "Bottom’s Up” (Atlantic Records).

"Actually the record came out a little different from what I was originally thinking about,” says the Philadelphia native who currently resides in Los Angeles. "I was intending to make a more bass-oriented record but somewhere along the way the compositional aspect took on a greater importance. Like on the piece Goose Bumps, I had actually written a really long involved bass solo section but it kind of detracted from the tune. I just wanted to let the groove stand for itself so I cut out the bass solo section, and I think the piece is better off for it.”

There’s still plenty of bass to be heard on That’s Right , but it’s more skillfully woven into the fabric of funky anthems like the opening Goose Bumps, the surging fusion romp Nothin’ But Net and the buoyant groover Rope A Dope (with Bill Evans providing low end punctuations on baritone sax). Victor also ferociously slaps his way through an inventive version of the Parliament-Funkadelic classic Knee Deep, in which he incorporates a chunk of "One Nation Under A Groove” into the arrangement. "I don’t like to think of it as a cover,” he says of Knee Deep. "It might be a little too much for some of the P-Funksters out there because it’s so involved with reharmonizing the voicings and reconstructing bits and pieces, but I’m real happy with the way it came out. And it was done as sort of a reactionary thing. It seems like everybody is doing covers of r&b tunes these days and it’s always so smooth and so safe. They don’t reharmonize, they don’t do their own arrangements. There’s a lot of old tunes I’d like to do but I don’t want to do them the way they were already done. So with this one I went out there on a limb.”

Victor’s lone vocal feature, Where’s Paco?, is a reference to his perennially tardy rhythm section partner in the Zawinul Syndicate, the stellar drummer Paco Sery. "That started out as a joke,” says the bassist. "One day at a sound check at a gig that Paco didn’t show up for, I started singing, Where is Paco? And the song just developed from there.” The tune not only showcases Bailey’s inherently soulful vocal stylings, it also represents the first time that he’s recorded with any effects on his bass (in this case a rather nasty-sounding fuzz tone which perfectly complements the sinister vibe of this earthy, Johnny Guitar Watson-styled groover).

The heart wrenching ballad Joey is Victor’s poignant tribute to a fallen relative. "A cousin of mine, Joe Bailey, got killed in a robbery in January,” he explains. "I went to the funeral in Philly and when I came home I went straight to the piano and instantly wrote this piece. I think it’s one of my prettier tunes. One day I want to write a classic melody that would stand the test of time...my answer to (Joe Zawinul’s) "A Remark You Made”. Until then, I’m really happy with the way this one came out.”

On the hard-hitting Nothin’ But Net, Victor locks in tightly with his longtime rhythm section mate Omar Hakim (they met on Bobby Broom’s 1981 date for GRP, "Clean Sweep” and in the mid ‘90s found themselves playing together on tour with Madonna). Says Bailey, "That’s a tune I wrote about 14 years ago. I remember playing it on a tour in 1987 with Lee Ritenour, Harvey Mason, Kenny G, Rodney Franklin and Herbie Mann. It was just one of those tunes that had been sitting around and when it came time to do this record I pulled it out and gave it a listen and thought it would be good to go.”

Rope a Dope is a piece that Bailey wrote on the tour bus last summer while traveling with the Zawinul Syndicate. The catchy vocal refrain is a reminder of Victor’s "Kid Logic” from his first album. "The title came out of nowhere,” he explains. "I don’t know why I called it Rope a Dope. Obviously, I’m a big Muhammad Ali fan.” Perhaps the most evocative piece on That’s Right is the eight-minute Steamy, which carries a slow-moving bolero vibe reminiscent of Herbie Hancock & The Headhunters’ 1973 classic "Vein Melter,” another evocative piece that also makes effective use of the haunting sound of Bennie Maupin’s bass clarinet.

The serious bass showcase here is Black on the Bach (a witty play-on-words of Quincy Jones’ "Back on the Block”). By overdubbing four tracks of interlocking bass parts -- arpeggios, solos, counterpoint, call-and-response -- Victor manages to meld J.S. Bach and the blues into one piece. This remarkable display of technical dexterity stands as his answer to Jaco Pastorius’ "Chromatic Fantasy,” another Bach-inspired bass showcase from Jaco’s "W ord of Mouth”. Victor says his interest in Bach’s music has been ongoing. "When I was a kid I played in the Philadelphia all-city high school orchestra, which was comprised of top music students from all over the city. So I’ve had some exposure to classical music and I’ve always had my little books of etudes and Bach cello suites that I practiced. That has been one of my big musical influences, but it’s something that has never come out before until now.”

That’s Right closes on a particularly aggressive note with the kicking title track. With Lenny White slamming a steady rockified backbeat throughout, this dense piece with its complex unisons in the head manages to combine aspects of funk, fusion and rock into one organic whole. Heavy metal bebop, anyone? "That’s another one that I wrote on the band bus with Joe Zawinul about a year ago,” says Bailey. "Originally I had some different rhythmic feels going on as the sections change but Lenny said, ‘No, man, lemme just keep it going.’ That actually took a while for it to grow on me but then I started noticing as we played it out live for people, their heads never stopped moving. That kind of a heavy groove can grab the people who don’t necessarily know about jazz and get them to pay attention to it.”

While the title track may grab people by the lapels and demand that they dig it, the rest of That’s Right insinuates itself on listeners in more subtle terms, strictly through the power of great grooves and top notch playing. Says Victor, "I’m proud of this record. It’s very listenable. You might be able to find records that have more spectacular bass stuff on them, but with most of those kind of records it seems like you buy them to check out some incredible bass playing but you’d never really want to put them on again. And then there are bass records that endure because the composing is on equal footing with the great playing. Jaco Pastorius’ first album is like that. I can still listen to that every week. I can still listen to Stanley Clarke’s "School Days” or Return To Forever’s "Romantic Warrior” every week. Those are great records, and I want to make records like that.”

Bailey is justifiably proud of That’s Right . While he plays a whole lot of bass throughout the album, the compositions and arrangements do stand on their own merit. This one should endure.

Author: Bill Milkowski

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