Million Seller is the sophomore long-player from British producer, guitarist/multi-instrumentalist
Matt Calvert. A founding member of
Three Trapped Tigers and
Strobes,
Calvert is equally fluent in the musical languages of jazz, electronica, classical, and rock. His 2018 debut,
Typewritten, was scripted solely for acoustic instrumentation.
Million Seller was inspired by the three early-'70s outings of
Herbie Hancock's
Mwandishi. That band recorded an eponymous album and
Crossings for
Warner Bros. as a sextet.
Hancock then signed to
Columbia, added electronics to become a septet, and recorded 1973's
Sextant. This is radically different from anything
Hancock recorded before or after. For one,
Calvert messed with the personnel formula. The pianist's group had three horn players; here, they're replaced by three synth players:
Matthew Bourne,
Supersilent's
Ståle Storløkken, and
Calvert. They are joined by kora master
Kadialy Kouyate, and three percussionists:
Mamadou Sarr,
Sam Wilson, and
Dave Smith.
Calvert unabashedly borrows titles from
Hancock albums and sought the aesthetic spirit of
Mwandishi. As such, most tunes are directly based on material from the three albums and often contain the same titles -- though hardly the same music.
Calvert had the band play live in the studio, executing long, freewheeling jams that he eventually edited down into manageable tracks. Opener "Ostinato" (the original title: "Ostinato for Angela Davis") has been divided into four sections offering various dimensional aspects of the composition interspersed throughout the album. The intro weds impressionistic electronics,
Kouyate's resonant kora, and layered percussion tracks. Digital basslines meet breakbeats, dub effects, and spatial dynamics before giving way to "Hornets" (originally on
Sextant).
Calvert re-creates the bass and snare vamp at a much faster tempo with maximal synths offering angular "melodic" lines in the backdrop. A nearly industrial intensity frames the synths as they collide under the vamp, screeing and squalling toward the unknown.
Crossings' "Sleeping Giant" is revisioned here as "Sleepless Giant." The nearly 25-minute original commences with layered drums, percussion, and electric keys, before transforming wholesale from avant modal jazz to uptempo jazz-funk. Spacy synths and a trap kit frame dynamically and texturally controlled squiggles and beats in "Hidden Shadows," while "Water Torture" floats and eventually drives with a bluesy kora riff, circular, propulsive djembe, and nearly processional synths. "You'll Know When You Get There" is the closest thing to a straight cover here but it, too offers significant variation with elegant interplay between synths and kora in fine balladic form; percussion appears in the tune's final minute.
Million Seller is brave, disorienting, and provocative. Initially sounding disjointed and jagged, it slowly reveals the continuity of its purpose through an expert articulation of new ideas inspired by the source material. While
Million Seller isn't an "official" tribute, it's a compelling work that reflects both the inspiration and the adventurous, pioneering spirit
Mwandishi made music with, and extends that influence into the 21st century. ~ Thom Jurek
