As a drummer,
Questlove holds a distinctive place in the musical landscape. A Grammy-winning performer, his work with
the Roots, both on and off The Tonight Show and with artists across the pop, jazz, R&B, and hip-hop spectrum have garnered broad respect. All of which makes 2024's
Plumb, his collaboration with iconic free jazz tenor saxophonist/bass clarinetist
David Murray and longtime
Roots associate keyboardist
Ray Angry, all the more a refreshing surprise.
Questlove is no stranger to jazz, let alone genre-bending projects; evidenced by his work on albums like 2001's
The Philadelphia Experiment with bassist
Christian McBride and organist
Uri Caine, 2005's
Momentum with saxophonist
Joshua Redman, and 2013's
Take Me to the Land of Hell with
Yoko Ono. Stil, his main thing is in-the-pocket hip-hop and neo-soul, the latter a vibe he brought to both
the Roots and his work with artists like
D'Angelo,
Erykah Badu, and
Mark Ronson. He brings all his experiences to bear on
Plumb, a sonically textured instrumental album that pleasingly comes off like one of the weirdest mood music LPs ever made. Many of the cuts have groove-based quality, like "Pink Noise," where
Questlove kicks into an off-kilter funk-swing beat against which
Murray soars and skronks while
Angry digs into a buzzy, vintage-sounding synth. Worlds collide on
Plumb, as on "5 Minute Joint," which evokes an impossible collaboration between reedist
Eric Dolphy,
Prince, and
Clyde Stubblefield. Elsewhere, they sink into the avant bossa nova lounge number "Intro to Ninno/Ninno," and conjure a woozy, astral jazz sensuality on "Brown Doves." There are also unaccompanied solo tracks, including
Murray's bluesy, bass clarinet number "False Dawn" and
Questlove's "Give the drummer Some"-style "Love."
Angry is perhaps the least well-known of the trio, so his contributions here are fascinating, invoking gospel, Krautrock, and, as on his solo track "Pleiades," spacy fusion in the '70s
Herbie Hancock tradition. A crazy mood music album indeed,
Plumb will groove you into far-out states of musical bliss. ~ Matt Collar
