Ibrahim Electric - Meets Ray Anderson- Again

Stunt

Round two for the team-up of Ibrahim Electric and American trombonist Ray Anderson continues in the raucous tone of their earlier ’05 meeting. It’s another live album taped in their native Copenhagen and draws in large degree from their last studio release in terms of songbook. Anderson is well-versed in funk-influenced improv and that background serves him well in this context. Ibrahim Electric specializes in retooling familiar Sixties soul rhythms and riffs to suit their jam band-meets-jazz improv needs. The opening “Funkorific” comes across like a close boogaloo cousin to Hendrix’s “Drivin’ South”. Anderson initiates the roundtable with a slippery solo steeped in slides and swoops, leading into a moody improvisation in octaves from guitarist Niclas Knudsen. “Splash” is basically “Green Onions” tweaked and updated.

Knudsen regularly assumes the role of second “horn”, tussling with Anderson in tandem or running down his own riffs. Drummer Stefan Pasborg keeps the party atmosphere percolating with a revolving array of pocket-perpetuating beats. Rounding out the Danish crew, organist Jeppe Tuxen repeatedly travels the continuum connecting Booker T. Jones and Larry Young and augments his Hammond console with a number of external effects to further vary the palette. “Red Room” celebrates the band’s lounge side via a loose organ blues shuffle, slipping slightly over into schmaltz, but ultimately saved by an impassioned brass solo from the guest star. The North African motif at the root of “Lobi” also receives a boost from the New Orleans second line rhythms ingrained in Anderson’s tailgate interjections.

“Skip It” splits the band into pairs, contrasting a dialogue between chicken scratch guitar and guttural trombone with a greasy organ and drums duet. “En Kold Fra Kassen” nods reverently to Seventies cop show themes while “Blue Balls” builds from a simple bar band blues motif and benefits from an Anderson interlude where he runs down a medley of funk fragments backed solely by handclaps. The rowdy audiences eat it all up, hooting and hollering and even getting into the act on the closing groove anthem “Absinthe”. This is a party record, pure and simple, and listeners willing to leave their highbrow improv hang-ups at home will likely find it worth the ride.

~ Derek Taylor