The Spanish Donkey- RAOUL (2015)

The Spanish Donkey- RAOUL (2015)

By: Ghost Writer

Despite being one of my favorite contemporary jazz guitarists, then other being the great Mary Halvorson, I don't get the chance to listen to Joe Morris guitar very often, he is surely a prolific musician appearing con several recordings per year, but Morris, a restless musician sometimes prefer to switch from guitar to bass for variety sake, a reason why this The Spanish Monkey recording is such a rewarding and long expected experience, even augmented by the fact that contrary to common sense, Morris is playing here a heavy distorted guitar, which only make things better.

RAOUL is a beast of a record in many ways, it puts Morris guitar to the front in all its wah wah drenched glory, from the title track we can enjoy Morris furious soloing along Mike Pride's awesomely strong drumming, Morris goes really wild on the guitar showing what a great improviser he is, a man who sheds skin, leaves his incredible clean style of playing guitar and goes into the kind of mayhem that would make Jimi Hendrix and Lou Reed equally proud, all this while Jamie Shaft slowly introduces here small layers of sound thru his keyboards.

It’s on Behavioral Sink where a ferocious battle between Morris and Shaft takes place, we can feel the deep magic on Shaft abrasive playing of heavy keyboards while Morris again starts improvising razor sharp guitar solos, here, Morris goes for a less flashy attack, but vigorously his into making his strings truly resound, letting himself go into a huge whirlwind of sounds that Pride helps giving him a torturous rock bottom with Shaft rising slowly the sound of his burning keys which gives the song a truly dark magical feel, right before jumping from a cliff and into the void at the end of the song.

You can't hardly call RAOUL a jazz record, it’s obviously made by jazz musicians, their families playing is obviously jazz rooted, but in the end, it becomes something else, something more obscure and menacing, like on last track Devil Fly Jones, where the atmosphere created is something that wouldn't be so out of place on a Black Sabbath record, as density, heaviness and darkness gets conjured in a superb way, you can feel the painful electric shock waves thrown by Joe Morris guitar, the ruthless drumming of Mike Pride and the despairing keyboard fills of Shaft, it’s a funerary thing with Morris and Shaft violent instrumental battle, ad here, thanks to Pride, there's also an omnipresent sense that everything is falling apart, even our nerves.

With two awesome key players, Shaft and Pride, Morris is able to deliver an outstanding record, an unexpected turn in his career, but one that totally delivers bathe good and even surpasses what I need could have expected from one of free jazz, live improv finest and more fluid guitarists, here Morris is a beast, and is a real pleasure to listen to this incredible transformation, The Spanish Donkey are one of the best things to come in recent years in the live improv genre.