JAH WOBBLE — 7 (review)

Album · 2011 · Dub/Ska/Reggae

4/5 · 2011-03-19
Matt

Misrepresentation I find the cover to be on this great new release form Jah Wobble aka John Joseph Wardle. "Why"?, do you say. There is someone playing a saxophone on the cover but not a sax is used throughout but one thing that does make up is lashings of trumpet and flugelhorn fron Sean Corby who lives in the U.K and has been around for a while, who actually was on one of Jah's previous albums "Japanese Dub". Blows a real nice trumpet tone as well with a little rough edge but does hit those notes with a great sound. Clive Bell who has been on a few to say the least with Jah is providing flute with his usual great play. Marc Layton-Bennett is pounding skins and that is how he hits the drum kit with great authority and drive throughout the entire album and also he is from the U.K. George King is on keyboards and like Sean played on "Japanese Dub". Chris Cookson is the bands guitarist which has not really changed as he was also in Jah's previous band Deep Space and knows exactly how to mix it with Jah's bass grumble. Shri Sriram provides tablas and bowed bass on only two of the albums numbers. Hence we have seven members in the band which is the title for the album. Only six compositions though. Jah's last album was "Welcome To My World" which only came out the year before and was a take on Jah's musical view of some of the places that Jah has memories off with 21 tracks including his take on Australia and "7" is a complete departure in style from it. No world music here just driving Jazz with a slight Dub effect used with two numbers and a surprisingly fresh sounding little rocker of a Jazz album being the result.

Jah leads us in on bass for "West End" with Marc really starting to hit the drum kit but the star is Sean Corby blowing that trumpet right over this groover with lashings of funk being the undercurrent and Clive Bell keeps up on flute when his turn comes.One great rocker to get your interest and along comes the track "9" with was that my heart pounding or Jah's bass but Sean Corby uses mute here and Clive Bell has a lot more time to stretch but that is only the intro with the tempo changing and Clive just playing a beautiful low key solo on flute with Sean back on low trumpet. The next two tracks "Country Cousin" and "City Meets Country" are co- joined and reggae is the rythmn with Jah's bass just thumping it out and Sean's trumpet just riding over the lot with a Dub sound just echoing from the mix. Where the track " City Meets Country" resumes the rythmn, your speakers are jumping with that bass grumble but the track is not exactly the same as the previous "Country Cousin" as there is a change halfway in when Clive plays flute but the bowed bass by Shri Sriram mixed with Jah's electric grumble gives the composition its own sound and great drive. "No Man's Land" is the second last number and has some great low atmosphere with its drift, keyboards and trumpet mix over riding that slow groove for a rythmn, with this being no better place for a flute solo from Clive. The album title is the album closer "7" with its organ sounding intro and is another hard rockin' driver with Chris Cookson playing broken repeat funk chords on guitar throughout and does Sean give us one on flugelhorn for his solo, Clive has his flute flat out and that guitar funk and bass just keep pushing it all along over Marc's pounding drums giving us a lovely rockin' finsher for the album.

Still Jah Wobble but with his take on Jazz. I hope we get some more in the near future.