As a leader, saxophonist and composer
Gary Thomas is wildly ambitious. Throughout the 1980s and into the '90s,
Thomas experimented with everything from
free jazz and
funk to
heavy metal and
hip-hop.
Exile's Gate is another such exercise. There are two distinct bands accompanying him here. One is made up of
Thomas on tenor with drummer
Jack DeJohnette and guitarist
Paul Bollenback with organist
Tim Murphy and bassist
Ed Howard. The other features the latter two musicians,
Marvin Sewell on guitar and drummer
Terri Lyne Carrington. The first band plays
Thomas' free-spirited and aggressive originals while the second plays
standards for the most part. Only
Thomas would think of putting the two approaches together on one record on alternate cuts. The pace is set by the title cut that opens the set, a freewheeling, menacing journey into overdriven counterpoint, and spirited interplay between
Bollenbeck and the saxophonist utilizing
hard rock tropes with
DeJohnette traveling from one end of the color spectrum to the other. As such, hearing the
standards, which are much more finessed and restrained; they feel forced in comparison.
"Kulture Bandits," with its accent on funky backbeats and knotty melody lines that borrow a bit from the fakebook of
Ronald Shannon Jackson & the Decoding Society and
Soft Machine. These are the cuts that point in new directions, toward a new kind of street
jazz, one anchored in gritty yet focused
improvisation. And while the
standards here such as
"Like Someone in Love," and
"Night and Day," are played ably enough and with some real
Thomas individualism; they don't contain the same kind of visionary focus or inspiration. For fans of
Thomas' work with
standards, the 1992 album
Till We Have Faces is a better bet. ~ Thom Jurek
![Thirsty Ear Presents: Blue Series Sampler [2003]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0700435713826_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "Thirsty Ear Presents: Blue Series Sampler [2003]")
