Dark Grooves Mystical Rhythms

Pianist James Hurt's Blue Note debut, Dark Grooves, Mystical Rhythms, shows that the young pianist is adept not only in his heavily percussive and rhythmic soloing style, but also in crafting intricate compositions out of the varied rhythms found all over the disc. With 12 original Hurt compositions, the album is stocked with a mix of seasoned (though young) veterans and some of New York's freshest talent: alto saxophonists Antonio Hart and Abraham Burton, drummers Eric McPherson and Nasheet Waits, and bassist Eric Reevis, among many others, all make appearances in lineups that range from trio settings to full-blown septet arrangements. But the star of the show here is the groove, which Hurt does a masterful job of employing. His achievement is in building tunes from the ground up, starting with the syncopated funk groove of "Neptune" or the reggae-to-Latin bounce of "The Tree of Life" and building intricate arrangements around each rhythm. The end result is that Dark Grooves, Mystical Rhythms is that rare jazz album that employs funk grooves but doesn't come across sounding like a forced hybrid--instead, the rhythms here flow naturally and all sound like integral parts of each tune. --Ezra Gale