| Jazz |
As fascinating as it is unclassifiable, the new album by Mac Gollehon takes you into an urban, Hispanic world at the crossroads of jazz, soul music, and electro. It’s a style of music we are not used to listening to, yet it is particularly interesting. In this configuration, we find: Mac Gollehon – trumpet, scat vocals, keyboards; Eric Klaastad – bass; Jeanne Carno – drums; Ismael Sanchez – percussion; Adam Perez – additional keyboards on “Coming At You”; Ariel Lawler – background vocals on “Sleepwalker”; David Brenner – sound effects on “Souled Out”.
Mac Gollehon arrived in New York in 1979 to seek ways to improve his jazz skills. At that time, he played in clubs like the Tin Palace and Greene St., but he mainly found himself playing in punk-funk bands at CBGBs. His other passion, boxing, led him to meet Tony Anthony, a former light heavyweight boxer. Tony, a boxing star who was defeated by Archie Moore in 1958, decided to train Mac in exchange for trumpet lessons. Tony simply enjoyed the trumpet as a hobby and kept talking about his former teacher, whom he still saw. It turned out that Tony’s teacher was Miles Davis.
This is likely one of the reasons why we can draw a parallel between Mac Gollehon’s latest album and Miles Davis’s “Doo-Bop.” The tireless Miles Davis once declared that jazz inspirations should now come from the streets and their influences. This is precisely the angle from which Mac Gollehon’s album should be approached. It must be said that he has toured with brilliant artists such as Duran Duran, Hall and Oates, Chaka Khan, Chic, etc. Their albums have reached the charts with Mac’s fiery brass sections, while Steve Winwood, Arrow, Laurie Anderson, Power Station, Mick Jagger, and many others have repeatedly hired him for more than 1000 recordings and over 75 solos on Top-Forty singles. In the world of screaming guitars, synths, and samplers, Mac Gollehon’s trumpet reigns; his solos can be heard everywhere on the airwaves. Listen to his solos on David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance,” Jagger and Bowie’s “Dancin’ in the Street,” Grace Jones’s “Inside Story,” Duran Duran’s “Notorious,” Billy Ocean’s “Get Out Of My Dreams,” and the soundtrack of Eddie Murphy’s “Coming to America.” (This last part is taken from his biography on All About Jazz, as we couldn’t find Mac Gollehon on social media, no website, so the hunt for information was on!)
‘Bite Of The Street’ is undoubtedly the result of all these long years spent accompanying other artists from whom he drew his own inspirations. By listening to guitar riffs, samplers, and other forms of sounds, Mac has evidently put everything into a shaker to come up with this artistic approach, which I admit may be difficult for some to grasp. But those of you who know the entire works of Miles Davis, Weather Report, and other jazz fusion enthusiasts know what I’m talking about. Like Miles, Mac Gollehon goes to the essence of his sonic universe, to be taken as it is or left. As for me, I can only place this album in the category of our ‘Essentials.’ It took me about ten listens to fully absorb this album, as the power and sonic richness can be dizzying.
Thierry De Clemensat
USA correspondent – Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, August 5th 2024
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