Bedrock

They Say...

Review by David R. Adler, All Music Guide

Uri Caine, having already done an acoustic trio record for Winter & Winter (1998's Blue Wail), decided to go electric on this one. Teaming with bassist Tim Lefebvre and drummer Zach Danziger (both of whom have backed guitarist Wayne Krantz), Caine plays Fender Rhodes on most of the tracks and shares writing credit across the board with his trio mates. There's a strong drum'n'bass element, especially on hyper-funky cuts like "Fang," "Flagrant Fragrant," and "J. Edgar Hoover in a Dress." Hip-hop production values are in the foreground; not only does DJ Logic makes two guest appearances, but the whole record plays much like a DJ mix, with direct (and at times barely detectable) segues between tracks. Add the triggered sounds and human-voice samples and you've got something quite potent: a jazz/hip-hop hybrid with a personal and accessible avant-garde thrust. Hip, spacy, and sometimes dark, the music also has its tongue-in-cheek aspects: the insane mix of disco, techno, and cocktail-hour bossa nova on "Lobby Daze"; the words "sex/perversion" looped at regular intervals during "Nymphomania"; the canned applause and thank-yous at the end of "Toe Jam"; and the piece de resistance, Pete Davenport's vocal freakout on the closing "Root Canal." Bedrock is not Caine's first flirtation with electronic music, nor is it his first appearance on Fender Rhodes. In that sense, he's elaborating on sounds and concepts heard on his Mahler albums, on Philadelphia Experiment, and on gigs with the Dave Douglas New Quintet.