Donny McCaslin
Perpetual Motion
Green Leaf Music
www.greenleafmusic.com
By George W. Harris

Sometimes I just sit and wonder what people in the future are going to say about the present state of music. I mean, most decades can be easily labeled by musical genres: the 20s-trad, 30s and 40s-swing, 40s-50s bebop, 50s hard bop and cool. 60s modal, free and soul, 70s fusion and 80s neo conservatism. Since then, just what can you put your finger on?

Tenor saxist Donny McCaslin, who was born in the mid 60s, is a perfect example of this quandary. He’s got a beefy Gene Ammons-styled tone, and has chops to burn. He’s one of the stars of Maria Schneider’s Orchestra, and has put out a bunch of solo discs on his own. He put out a riveting mainstream-modal small grouper in 07 (In Pursuit), followed by an explorative trio and then a semi-orchestral gem. All divergent from the predecessor, but nothing that creates an identifiable sound our style. This time out, he’s created a disc that mixes 70s electronic fusion with modal meanderings that just make you wonder if he’s looking for something new by looking at something in the past.
McCaslin’s core team here of Adam Benjamin/Rhodes-p, Tim Lefebvre/b and Antonio Sanchez-Mark Guiliana/dr is augmented by Uri Caine/key and David Binney/as-electronics. Essentially, they go through a set of tunes that are short on melody, and long on explorative improvisations, almost as if you’re at some local gig. “Perpetual Motion” and “Claire” both clock in between 11-13 minutes, and are simply solos passed like a relay baton. “Energy Generation” and “Memphis Redux” have a bit more groove and backbeat, and display McCaslin’s high cholesterol tone, while the keyboard noodlings on the tracks are reminiscent of a Soft Machine concert way back when. Lots of great technique is displayed here, but like when you see pictures of body builders, you end up asking yourself, to what purpose?