Your Queen Is a Reptile (2018)

Whither Impulse! Records? In 1979, the iconic jazz label, home of John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra etc., etc., was acquired by MCA, which promptly went skidding into the music industry recession of the early 1980s and oblivion. The end of an era. But, according to Wikipedia, Impulse is still alive and "now part of the Universal Music Group's jazz holdings, the Verve Music Group." Forty years later the roster, as listed on its website, is considerably trimmed down to six artists. One of them is still John Coltrane (who died in 1967), and at least four of the others, including Sons of Kemet, are projects associated with Shabaka Hutchings, a British jazz saxophone/woodwinds player. I'm not sure how all that stacks up exactly but a further data point is I can say Your Queen Is a Reptile is definitely within the raging spiritual squall of the label's mission, updated with a nice feel (and light hand) for studio wonkery. A lot of what is slightly disorienting about this outer space island jazz sound with the heavy bottom derives from the unusual makeup of the band: a 4-piece with saxophone, tuba, and two drummers, plus some guest toasting and poetry as the occasion arises. My thought on first hearing my still favorite track, the raving "My Queen Is Harriet Tubman," was that it reminded me of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. That's probably the tuba, I'm sure, one of those instruments that lends an indelible air no matter where you put it, like bagpipes or the ukulele. Then I got a look at the playlist, where the political vibe is much easier to make out across the attack of instrumental cuts: on an album called Your Queen Is a Reptile, "My Queen Is Ada Eastman," "My Queen is Mamie Phipps Clark," "My Queen Is Harriet Tubman," nine times over, 5-minute-plus slabs that play with authority and clarity, in honor of a woman of color, even as the players otherwise choose mostly to mute themselves behind the instruments. Fela's Afrobeat, attitude and all, is another obvious source. This is a good one!