(Reprinted from the July 2021 issue of Downbeat magazine)
On Purest Form, James Francies’ second Blue Note album, the pianist doesn’t so much compose music as conjure fascinating nebulae of sound. Like Flight, his 2018 label debut, the sequel continues Francies’ research into music as an abstract language grounded in the stuff of everyday life—vulnerability, resolve, love.
Several of Francies’ admired peers from Flight returned for this record date: Bassist Burniss Travis III and drummer Jeremy Dutton play on most of the tracks, saturating them with rhythm, and vibraphonist Joel Ross and guitarist Mike Moreno guest on two tunes each. In creating his genre-agnostic compositions, Francies relies heavily on the fine titration of these relationships—the uninitiated might have trouble keeping up.
Take, for instance, “My Favorite Things,” the only non-Francies work on the album. Francies’ arrangement of this Rodgers and Hammerstein standard shifts continually in meter and color, full of vivid exchanges between the players. Likewise, “Levitate,” Francies’ composition for trio, races meteorically through an acoustic section towards an electronics-charged conclusion. And “Where We Stand,” with its sweet, relentless melodicism, provides opportunity for tricky, break-neck doubling between fellow Blue Note artists Ross and saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins.
The album does breathe, however. Francies also includes two brief string interludes, “Stratus” and “Still Here,” more pensive than quiescent, and several subdued vocal tracks, featuring singers Elliott Skinner (“Rose Water”), Bilal Oliver (“Eyes Wide Shut”), Peyton Booker (“Blown Away”), and Francies himself (“Melting” and “Oasis”). The spoken word sections, too, give pause—especially the oral history relayed by Francies’ father, James Francies Sr., on “Freedmen’s Town.” It’s a sober reminder of the raw experience from which higher thoughts—and deeper understandings—might arise.
Pure Form: Adoration; Levitate; Transfiguration; Blown Away; Rose Water; My Favorite Things; Stratus; 713; Melting; Where We Stand; Freedmen’s Town; Eyes Wide Shut; Still Here; Oasis. (55:42)
Personnel: James Francies, keyboards, piano, vocals, spoken word; Jeremy Dutton, drums; Burniss Travis III, bass; Immanuel Wilkins, saxophone; Joel Ross, vibraphone; Mike Moreno, guitar; Tia Allen, viola; Marta Bagratuni, cello; Francesca Dardani, violin; Sulamit Gorski, violin; DJ Dahi, drum programming; Peyton Booker, vocals; Elliott Skinner, vocals; Bilal Oliver, vocals; Brenda Francies, spoken word; James Francies Sr., spoken word; Shawana Francies, spoken word.