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Funk and games are just the start of any Anderson ensemble, but even more so with this sextet, who ease into gutbucket blues and dancehall riddims without compunction. A fine line-up promises and delivers. Guitarist Jerome Harris and drummer Tommy Campbell sit tight with percussionist Frank Colón and bassist Greg Jones. Trumpeter Lew Soloff's bright, clear, focused tone complements Anderson's own dusky, quavery, broad one, making for wild ensemble numbers, like Anderson's old "Tapajack," back-lit by his needle-nosed muted/unmuted solo. ***1/2 Ray Anderson's Alligatory Band
HEADS AND TALES
(enja)
The first of "The Four Reasons" (for love) squirms its way through much neo-urban-blues undergrowth. The suite is rather composerly, but the last five tracks loosen up. "Cheek to Cheek" swaggers tongue-in-cheek in 7/4. "Road Song" struts the main drag, nimbly sideswiping cliché. Anderson sings two idiosyncratic originals, more tenderly than in his vocal outings with his underrated '80s band the Slickaphonics. His message on "Tough Guy" -- it's okay not to be macho -- is echoed by Colón's berimbau and Soloff's flügelhorn. The sendoff puts down small talk and big drink, hilariously.
-- Fred Bouchard
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