Trumpeter Jack Walrath may be best known for his stint with Charles Mingus, but his solo career has had more in common with Frank Zappa’s satiric jazz-rock period. (Album titles like I Am the Walrath and Revenge of the Fat People are a clue.) Released in 2001, Invasion of the Booty Shakers is pretty freaky all the way around, from the oddball song titles (one track that resembles In a Silent Way-era Miles Davis is called, for no apparent reason, “Da Thrill of Vasectomy, da Agony of da Feet”) to bizarre exercises like “Quiero Ser Tú Cerdo,” a Cuban-style mambo that translates to “I Want to Be Your Pig,” with lyrics to match. As with Zappa, the humor is goofy and occasionally verging on puerile (see above), but the playing more than makes up for it. A muscular mix of post-bop jazz soloing and heavy rock rhythms, with Miles Griffith’s wordless scat singing adding a playful element to most of the tracks, Invasion of the Booty Shakers isn’t the mindless groove music implied by the title, but a witty and often fascinating slice of adventurous jazz-rock. – Stewart Mason
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