Gary Bartz - Gary Bartz JID006 (2021) Hi-Res

Alto saxophonist Gary Bartz may represent the platonic ideal of the musician that the Jazz Is Dead series is designed for. Over the past year, this innovative run of releases from Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad has sought to both recognize and recontextualize the contributions of some minimized (or misunderstood) jazz players, while simultaneously giving them new creative ground to stand on. Bartz's exploratory discography from the '60s and '70s—winding from spiritual jazz to Afrocentric free jazz through fusion, funk, and more—has made him a jazz-head fave, but also a hard chapter to write in the genre's history, as he never broke through to wide critical or commercial acclaim. But the sense of adventure that informed his peak-period work as well as the unassailable technical solidity of his playing has also meant that he's a player capable of (and likely interested in) inventive creativity within the idiom. And "inventive creativity within the idiom" has proven to basically be the unwritten motto of the Jazz Is Dead project, which has done a fantastic job of pairing players like Bartz (as well as Roy Ayers, Marcos Valle, Azymuth, and Doug Carn) with material and collaborators that evoke a modern relevance while staying true to the artists' core creative personality. On these eight extraordinary tracks, Bartz works primarily in a mid-tempo funk groove, pivoting off a strong rhythmic underpinning to lay down some phenomenal sax work that finds a sweet midpoint between free blowing and melodic fusion. The production work of Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad provides a flowing and soulful sense of structural integrity here, giving Bartz plenty of room to stretch out while giving the listener a rhythmic anchor that's both anchored and alive. This combination succeeds most notably on a track like "The Message," in which Bartz hones in on a sort of middle ground of his playing style—a technically proficient but deeply spiritual approach that's as fiery as it is funky—while the rolling bassline that kicks off the track keeps the whole affair nimble and funky. Similarly, the breaks-driven rhythm of "Spiritual Ideation" functions primarily as a centrifugal force for Bartz to be both incredibly melodic and proddingly exploratory. It makes for an exciting and engaging work that may not exactly be "timeless," but is definitely not beholden to any specific era, past or present.