Malachi Thompson is impressive not only because of his talents as a composer and a soloist, but also because of his versatility. The Chicago trumpeter has no problem playing
Blue Note-flavored hard bop/post-bop, but he's equally comfortable in avant-garde situations. Though
Clifford Brown,
Lee Morgan, and
Freddie Hubbard are strong influences on
Thompson, he has also learned a lot from
Lester Bowie. In fact,
Bowie is a featured guest on
Buddy Bolden's Rag. This superb CD finds
Thompson celebrating the contributions of New Orleans cornetist
Buddy Bolden, one of jazz's pioneers and a major influence on such greats as
King Oliver and
Louis Armstrong. It has been argued that
Bolden single-handedly "invented" jazz in the 1890s, and while it's a stretch to say that he invented jazz all by himself, he most certainly played a crucial role in its development. (
Jelly Roll Morton, by the way, claimed to have "invented" jazz -- again, no one should take credit for single-handedly inventing it). On
Buddy Bolden's Rag,
Thompson and his band
Africa Brass salute
Bolden in an unconventional way; instead of playing traditional New Orleans jazz, they provide inside/outside post-bop that acknowledges Crescent City brass bands as well as avant-garde and
AACM jazz.
Thompson looks back on jazz's early history but does so without being the least bit dogmatic about it, and the result is a very enriching and unpredictable CD. ~ Alex Henderson
![Waltz for Debby [1962]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0888072323261_p0_v2_s90x140.jpg "Waltz for Debby [1962]")