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25 Aug, 2014
Gemmill doesn't have a lot of assistance on this album. He wrote most of the material by himself, although he produced the album with his
colleague Cozzetti. And Cozzetti co-wrote the Return to Forever-ish track "Red Valley" (which contains some wordless vocals that recall
singer Gayle Moran's work with Return to Forever and the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the 1970s). But it is Gemmill's personality that does
the most to shape the album musically. And while Road Songs sounds more produced and more programmed than a lot of fusion recordings,
Gemmill's appreciation of artists like Corea, Hancock, Duke and Zawinul comes through.
There is a Weather Report-ish mood on the funky "Proteus" and "Empire in Quest" as well as on "No Na Me,"
"Fugue" and "Pine Siskin." Weather Report, for the uninitiated, was a great fusion band that Zawinul co-founded with
tenor/soprano saxophonist Wayne Shorter in 1970. Zawinul and Shorter both started out in acoustic straight-ahead jazz: Zawinul was part of alto
saxophonist Cannonball Adderley's group in the 1960s, and Shorter kept busy in trumpeter Miles Davis' mid-1960s quartet as well as with
the acoustic post-bop albums he recorded for Blue Records as a leader. But when Zawinul and Shorter co-founded Weather Report, they wanted to go
in a more amplified direction. Weather Report favored a mixture of jazz, rock and funk, but they also incorporated a variety of world music. And
on parts of Road Songs, one hears Gemmill incorporating world music in a way that recalls Zawinul and Shorter's collaborations.
"Zigzag," for example, recalls the way Weather Report would sometimes incorporate African music: it reminds the listener of music from
Mali, Ethiopia and the Sudan, but not at the expense of jazz, funk and rock appeal. "No Na Me" also has that type of African influence.
"Fugue," meanwhile, is a contemplative piece that hints at European church music. Between the African influence on "Zigzag"
and "No Na Me" and the European influence on "Fugue" and a performance of J.S. Bach's "Invention No. 13 in A
Minor," Road Songs draws inspiration from different parts of the world. And that may explain why it is called Road Songs:
if someone hits the road, does a lot of international traveling and checks out the music scenes in different countries, he/she is likely to be
exposed to a variety of musical styles.
"Invention No. 13 in A Minor" is the only song on this album that Gemmill didn't either write or co-write. He wrote "Drone,"
"Proteus," "Zigzag," "Blues for Ralph," "Pine Siskin," "Empire in Quest," "Fugue" and
"No Na Me" but co-wrote "Red Valley" with Cozzetti.
"Blues for Ralph" is funky in a way that recalls the late George Duke's instrumental fusion output of the early to mid-1970s. Duke
wore many different hats during his long career: he was an acoustic post-bop pianist, an electric fusion keyboardist, a funk/soul singer
("Reach for It" from 1977 was a funk classic and a big hit), and an R&B producer. Pigeonholing Duke was next to impossible, and on
"Blues for Ralph," it isn't the vocal-oriented funk of "Reach For It" or "Dukey Stick" (a 1978 single) that
Gemmill brings to mind, but rather, the fusion-oriented, instrumental Duke of 1972, 1973 and 1974. There are no vocals on "Blues for
Ralph," and it is Gemmill's keyboards that make the tune funky.
Actually, there are very few vocals on Road Songs. And even when one does hear the occasional singing on this album, it is wordless scat
singing. "Red Valley" and "Drone" are both examples of Gemmill incorporating wordless vocals, but the vast majority of the
time, he keeps things instrumental.
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Alex Henderson