A reunion of sorts for several
Herbie Hancock band alumni of the 1970s,
Mike Clark's 2023 album
Kosen Rufu finds the drummer joining forces with trumpeter
Eddie Henderson and percussionist
Bill Summers. All three musicians played key roles in
Hancock's career at different times. An acolyte of
Miles Davis,
Henderson was a member of
Hancock's landmark avant-garde fusion
Mwandishi sextet, the group that preceded
the Headhunters. Similarly,
Clark replaced founding
Headhunters drummer
Harvey Mason in 1974, just after the release of the group's influential self-titled debut -- a period that also featured
Summers. Throughout the rest of the decade,
Henderson would bring members of
the Headhunters together for his own projects, with
Clark appearing on 1976's
Heritage and
Summers on 1978's
Mahal. All of which is to say, there is a deep shared history between all three players, rooted in the exploratory jazz that
Hancock championed. Joining them are several like-minded players who bring their own varied experiences to the proceedings, including legendary West Coast bassist
Henry "The Skipper" Franklin, keyboardist
Wayne Horvitz, and tenor saxophonist
Skerik. While there are certainly moments that evoke
the Headhunters' funk-inflected style, the album is more akin to the edgy, acoustic, post-bop and free jazz of
Ornette Coleman and
Eric Dolphy, the latter of whose "Hat and Beard"
Clark and company tackle here with puckish, atonal aplomb. More evocative of
the Headhunters' sound is "MC's Thing," a woozy, loping number where
Skerik and
Henderson share bluesy asides. There's also
Horvitz' dreamy organ number "One for Mganga," where
Summers sprinkles chimes, bells, and other sundry percussion against
Clark and
Franklin's clipped go-go groove while
Henderson and
Skerik squeal and coo into the harmonic atmosphere. We also get
Franklin's "Olivia," a hard-swinging number in the tradition of
Miles Davis' late-'60s quintet which is marked by moments of tonally open-ended, paint-spattered intensity from
Henderson. When
Clark,
Henderson, and
Summers first worked with
Hancock they were all in their twenties and early thirties, young mavericks ready to explore the edges of the jazz universe. On
Kosen Rufu, they are veterans, elder statesmen of the fusion age, yet they sound as inspired and ready to jump into the jazz unknown as ever. ~ Matt Collar