Marty Ehrlich Rites Quartet, Things Have Got To Change
A beautifully textured tribute
Ehrlich’s unstated but palpable tribute to his mentor, the redoubtable composer-saxophonist Julius Hemphill, eschews maudlin imitation in favor of a fresh assortment of Hemphill’s signature virtues — acrid humor, a blues fundament, and original, arresting harmonies and textures.
A pair of previously unrecorded Hemphill originals, “Dung” and “Slices of Light,” are included, but the third Hemphill cover tune is the charm: A glorious rendition of his masterpiece, “Dogon A.D.,” that has the riveting grace and centrifugal swing of a dancing elephant. Another nod to Hemphill is the instrumentation: Trumpeter James Zollar and drummer Pheeroan akLaff are joined by cellist Erik Friedlander (much as Hemphill deployed cellist Abdul Wadud), with Ehrich hewing to alto sax to round out the quartet.
The five Ehrlich originals generate an impressive array of colors, with Friedlander plucking traditional, but highly melodic, bass lines (as on “Rites Rhythms”), bowing beautiful passages (especially on “Some Kind of Prayer”), and sawing like a fiddler (“On the One”), while Zollar alternately blows fleet and brittle, bawdy and bluesy, and engages Ehrlich in stirring unison lines. Ehrlich’s strength as a composer frequently overshadows his sax work, but he’s estimable throughout, and particularly acute interpreting the Hemphill songs. The drummer akLaff, more musician than mere timekeeper, keeps cool in the shadings.
