The Coalition Of The Willing

They Say...

Review by Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

Bobby Previte has been full of surprises during his long and quirky career as a musician's musician. Whether playing swing, hard bop, or vanguard free jazz, or playing electronic drums and keyboards in space-age jams with Charlie Hunter, he's never failed to ignite whatever project he's been part of. Coalition of the Willing is a different animal altogether. Previte's new offering employs a core of musicians including guitarist Hunter and Jamie Saft on keyboards while bringing in players such as trumpeter Steve Bernstein, Latin for Travelers' Stew Cutler on harmonica and slide guitar, and saxophonist Skerik. The music runs rabbit-like all over the map. This is militant music made by a militant composer. It's rock music for a different age -- one that is scarier, angrier, and more put-upon to just surrender than any in memory. The set opens with a hard-driven organ and guitar duel in "The Ministry of Truth," which is space-age surf music. The spaced-out jazz-rock of "Airstrip One" is a startling change of pace, but it too gets upended in the funky roots rock of "Versificator." "The Ministry of Love" -- with Hunter just losing it -- is simply über acid rock & roll that becomes undone when the jangly 12-string-driven "Oceania" drops deep into Middle Eastern dub reggae abut halfway through. Then there are the noir-ish country soundtrack atmospherics in "The Inner Party," which get stranger and more atmospheric in "Memory Hole," as Bernstein and Cutler take turns delightfully out-weirding each other. The set closes with "Anthem for Andrea," a bona fide instrumental rock anthem worth every bit of the Pete Townshend dynamics it wears on its sleeve, with Skerik's saxophone solo juxtaposed against Saft's keyboards and Bernstein's beautifully repetitive solo. All the while, through all of these cuts, Previte directs from the trap kit. He's fully Bobby Previte without being anything like the Previte you would recognize. He's the same but somehow new as a rock & roll musician with not only chops but a fertile and unhinged imagination. And this disc -- the latest in the Ropeadope label's scintillating series of provocative offerings -- is one of those winners that in five years, no matter how often you've heard it, will yield something new.