7d Media 2024
Stealing thunder from gods, master of tuneful beat and his heavenly messengers crystallize their spirituality.
Drums Of Compassion
To call this artist a legend means to underestimate his status – the status which was forged at Woodstock where the young drummer set the world alight with his fiery solo on “Soul Sacrifice” before proceeding to play on classic SANTANA platters, including “Abraxas” and “Caravanserai” LPs, and going on to a very varied, in stylistic terms, journey. The man driving the heaven-splitting groove on the likes of “Samba Pa Ti” would become a member of Stomu Yamashta’s prog outfit GO and leave his mark on "Go!...Live From Paris" and "Go Too" – the band’s leader himself being a maven of rhythm only stressed Michael Shrieve’s talents – and could later be heard on such dissimilar records as AUTOMATIC MAN’s eponymous album and “Trancefer” by Klaus Schulze. Together with Neil Young, Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh and David Crosby, he cowrote “What Are Their Names” on Crosby’s debut “If I Could Only Remember My Name” – and, of course, the veteran’s had a remarkable solo career that peaks here.
According to Michael, “Drums Of Compassion” – a reference to both the Dalai Lama’s call for a Time of Compassion and Babatunde Olatunji’s “Drums Of Passion” LP – is “an Offering” or, putting it differently, another sacrificial gift; and indeed, rarely does a percussionist’s platter project a variety of tempos so stunning that, dictating melodic flow from jazzy melancholy to folksy merriment and beyond, the music will transport the listener to a new plane of spiritual existence. Aiding and abetting Shrieve in this endeavor are quite a few fellow travelers, starting with the aforementioned Babatunde whose “Jin-go-lo-ba” served as a basis for SANTANA’s famous “Jingo” and who’s providing a mesmeric vocal chant on “The Call Of Michael Olatunji” which opens the primarily instrumental album before the ensemble of the main man, Jack DeJohnette, Zakir Hussain and Airto Moreira – the guests who step into their own spotlight further down the line – cast a collective spell. They steep the soundscape of sonic designer Jeff Greinke’s synthesizers, Trey Gunn’s guitars and James Whiton’s bass in a scintillating swirl of multilayered beats, initially unhurried yet giving way to an invigorating maelstrom of strikes until the elegiac “On The Path To The Healing Waters” brings forth the ripples of BC Smith and Joe Doria’s pianos and the meander of Skerik’s sax.
Still, sharing the same cosmic mood, first “As Above, So Below” – where Raul Rekow and Karl Perazzo weave exciting patterns by hitting various surfaces – and then “The Euphoric Pandiero Of Airto Moreira” and “Zakir Hussain” find Michael curate his friends’ aural feasts, the former shouting and letting tribal magic fill the ether and the latter a heady, if reserved, tabla dance. It’s Shrieve’s brushes, though, that drive the “The Fierce Energy Of Love” – a brief burst of joy, with Dave Hill Jr. and Stephan Maas submitting most of the thunder – and it’s his sticks that work wonders on “Oracle” where Amnon Tobin’s electronica-enhanced riffs elevate the jive to stormy heights, and on the Eastern motifs which form “The Breath Of Human Kindness” to see Pete Lockett whisper to the ivories and strings. And then there’s the spaced-out finale of “Hejira”: a breathing, transparent tapestry of orchestral scope, immense, soul-stirring beauty and dynamic grandeur to die for.
A latter-day milestone from the trendsetter, “Drums Of Compassion” is a majestic opus which keeps on exuding rapture spin after spin.
*****
