(Reprinted from the March 2022 issue of Downbeat magazine)
Prolific drummer William Hooker doesn’t seem to have a problem with idea generation—he brings plenty of creativity to his writing for free improvisation. But just how does he get all of these ideas to coalesce in real time? On Big Moon, his second Org Music release of all new music, he again reveals an uncommon talent for spontaneous compositional design.
A quick scan of the album’s 11 titles, with their allusions to esoteric philosophy, establishes the conceptual gambit for this record: the avant-garde as cosmological expression. Musically, this notion requires greater lyricism and more breathing room than Hooker used on 2020’s Symphonie of Flowers, his first all-new release for Org, with its pounding beats, squealing horns and justifiable outrage.
But consonance rather than conflict seeds this new effort; in this way, Big Moon serves as a natural corollary to the earlier collection. So you’ll hear a resonant piano in contemplation on the head of “Stations of Power,” the opening tune, before an ethereal, sustained synth line extends the harmony. Then, a steady, Latin groove in the bass that animates the soloists (flute, sax, percussion) and triggers the final acceleration on “Right Speech.” Relentless congas and powerful shouts that dictate the furious dispatch of “Extra-Planetary Livingness.” Moments of shared soulfulness punctuated with extemporaneous discord on “Synthesis of Understanding.”
If the group’s acoustic instrumentation is primarily responsible for the album’s grounded sound, the contrasting electronic elements give the tunes their lift. Note how the bubbly synth flirts with the hand drumming and somber sax on “Major Planetary Centers,” how the electronic scratches, bleeps and growls lend “Sequence of the Form” an air of abstraction. Or, finally, how a symphonic swell of oscillating sound accentuates the majesty of the solfege-adorned track, “All I Can Say… Human Family,” Hooker’s parting word on the power of harmonious relationships.
Big Moon: Stations of Power; Right Speech; Ring-Pass-Not; Major Planetary Centres; Seven Rays; Sequence of the Form; Synthesis of Understanding; The Council Chamber; Extra-Planetary Livingness; The Great Lives; All I Can Say… Human Family. (1:22:16)
Personnel: William Hooker, conductor, drums; Jimmy Lopez, percussion; Jai-Rohm Parker Wells, bass; Charles Compo, flute; Stephen Gauci, sax; Mara Rosenbloom, piano; Mark Hennen, piano; Theo Woodward, synthesizer; Sarah Manning, sax.
Photo: V.Suslavicius