Chicago Red

Chicago Red demonstrates that there is still a lot of life in the notion of marrying strong funk and r'n'b grooves to Jazz. With spacey effects and a smaller pallet of trumpet, guitar, keyboards and exotic percussion it has a lot of the flavor of Miles? Davis 80?s electric work. Brad Goode?s trumpet coos and bops over rhythms that involve scratchy guitar, shifting percussion and the occasional layer of sitar. On ?St. Louis Blues? he plays straight, cozy blues with dissonant piano and chiming sitar behind him and on ?Spirals? Bill Kopper answers his piercing virtuoso runs with twisting Alan Holdsworth-like guitar. ?Cats In The Yard? is similar with both men going for freakier electric sounds. Goode does some kind of electrified babbling and squealing into his horn while Kopper turns up his amp and goes for full-on electric skronk effects over Bijoux Barbosa?s stuttering electric bass and Paa Kow?s slick drumming. On first hearing this sounds like lightweight and forgettable jazz-funk but listening to it over and over you pick up the trickiness and textures of the rhythms and appreciate the smart, lively soloing. This is a CD that rewards close hearing.