WSQ members reveal details of their next CD

"We can do anything we want to!" exclaimed Hamiet Bluiett,
and I for one am inclined to agree...

When I interviewed World Saxophone Quartet baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett for a story about the group's appearance in St. Louis this week, the conversation included, as such talks always do, things that didn't make it into the published article. One such subject was the WSQ's next CD, and what Bluiett told me, along with additional details gleaned at the WSQ performance at Jazz at the Bistro on Wednesday night, adds up to an intriguing preview of the project.

"It’s called Political Blues," Bluiett said. "It’s really different – we have vocalists and a lot of other stuff included in it.” The just-completed sessions were modeled on the same template as the WSQ's Jimi Hendrix tribute Experience, with a bass player, drummer and additional musicians brought in to augment the four-saxophone lineup. Guest musicians will include guitarist/vocalist James "Blood" Ulmer and the phenomenal electric bassist Jamaladeen Tacuma, and the CD will also feature some out-of-the-ordinary contributions from the WSQ members themselves. "David Murray is singing a tune, and Oliver Lake is reading some poetry," said Bluiett. "But that’s nothing new – you know Lake has also done a one man play, right?"

The audience at the Bistro got a preview from the upcoming CD during the second set on Wednesday, when theWSQ performed "Spy On Me Blues," which featured a hard-swinging, R&B-style head and unaccompanied solos by all four members over a hand-clapping groove. Bluiett ended his solo with an impromptu vocal rendition of "Happy Birthday" in tribute to an audience member, then, with a big grin, yelled "We can do anything we want to!" before the ensemble kicked back in.

The next segment, also presumably from Political Blues, featured low bass notes from Bluiett and free-ranging simultaneous improvisations from James Carter and Bruce Williams as Lake read a poem dealing with the lack of government response to Hurricane Katrina. A litany of errors was recounted, punctuated by exclamations of "Oops!," (not unlike the old Bill Cosby bit about things you never want to hear your surgeon say). "We need help!" exhorted Lake, followed by a dejected-sounding repetition of the phrase "Help is on the way...Help is on the way." It was a short bit, two or three minutes perhaps, done with humor that prompted chuckles and vocal interjections of approval from the audience, but with a serious point.

“Some things need to be said," Bluiett told me when asked the message of Political Blues. "There’s a lot of stuff that needs to be said, especially from where we’re coming from with what we’re trying to do in terms of the music. Things are sort of going backwards, or going sideways, wherever they’ve gone. The music is going backwards. Newer things are needed, and we’re really not dealing with them.”

"People around here are celebrating the music of the Forties, the Fifties, the Sixties," he continued. "You don’t necessarily have to totally forget everything, but to wallow in it is kind of – that’s not what this music is about. We were always more progressive-minded, forward-looking, trying to change something that wasn't ever quite totally right anyway. I’m not going along with it," concluded Bluiett, declining further discussion of the subject because "that would be like a whole ‘nother conversation, anyway."

Clearly, Bluiett and the other members of the World Saxophone Quartet have lots to say about politics, music, culture and a host of other subjects, and I look forward to hearing more of their views and their music when Political Blues is released later this year - "in May or June," was what Lake said from the stage on Wednesday, though Bluiett earlier had spoken of a fall release.