Joy

Benjamin Boone often explores the intimate confluence of melody and speech. On the two volumes of The Poetry Of Jazz, a collaboration with the late United States Poet Laureate Philip Levine, the saxophonist demonstrated his ability to fluently interact with and reply to a spoken text.

On Joy, Boone expands his penchant for conversation. Stemming from his time as a Fulbright Scholar in Ghana, Boone engages in dialogue with Bernard Ayisa, one of Africa's most esteemed tenor players, and Ayisa's partners in The Ghana Jazz Collective. Their musical speech has a West African lilt, but the language is all-the-way jazz. On the opener, "The Intricacies Of Alice," a rollicking head leads to Boone, Ayisa and pianist Victor Dey Jr. chatting through funky medium-tempo solos. The vibe continues on a reimagining of Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage," which features a prominent bass line, and out-harmonies that arrange the saxophones and the voice of Sandra Huson in skewed triads. Dey's solo echoes Hancock's famous reading, just more calmly. Particularly impressive is "Curtain Of Light," a work written by Jonovan Cooper, an American composer living in Ethiopia. Dramatic and explicit, the tune evokes a thundering dawn breaking through mountainous crags.

The album also features a pleasant ballad, "Without You," again highlighting Huson, and the title tune "Joy," a Gerry Niewood composition, that should remind listeners of soundtracks to breezy 1960s French New Wave films.