Downbeat review
June 2004

FLY -

Jazzifying the staccato melody of Jimi Hendrix’s acid-tinged come-on “Spanish Magic Castle,” and taking a surging run through a tune by bassist Reid Anderson might well summon comparisons to The Bad Plus, but the cooperative trio Fly is far more than quirky rock songs turned inside out. Unlike their piano trio breathen, Fly’s sound is stripped down, capturing the live-off-the floor recording approach, and affording a lot of room for Mark Turner’s unaccented, unhurried tenor sax playing. And, the Hendrix cover aside, Fly has an aversion to working a groove to death, preferring instead to explore variations and choose compositions witih multiple parts.

At the heart of the band’s approach is the long-standing relationship bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard. Musical soulmates since their teens in California, they consistently find ways to complement and enhance what the other is playing. This is true whether the tune is a busy Ballard piece built around a Ghanian Rhythm with a big nod to Ed Blackwell (“Child’s Play”) or a hard-grooving Grenadier original dedicated to soul bass giant Jerry Jemmott (“JJ”).

Where many bands would be content creating cool ways of showcasing their influences, Fly takes it a notch higher by reaching beyond the obvious to create works as interesting as “Fly Mr. Freakjar,” a true example of collective composition, built on a complex Ballard rhythm, and Grenadier’s “Emergence/Resurgence,” which shifts gears radically from a dark bass clarinet line to an intense, upbeat middle section.

- James Hale