Uncivilized Poise

Uncivilized Poise

Editorial Reviews
From Jazziz
Brad Jones is a veteran player, having thumped his bass with the likes of the Jazz Passengers, Vibes, and Los Cubanos Postizos. Under the respective direction of Roy Nathanson, Bill Ware, or Marc Ribot, Jones works. But AKA Alias is his first shot at leading on record, and his inexperience shows.

He can coax nothing more from Anti-Pop Consortium rapper Beans than flows that just don't and rhymes that blur maniacally into mock high-minded abstractions. He inspires little more in vocalist DK Dyson than poetry-slam fodder like "I'm wearing the garments of genius and I can't complain." He loses control musically, too, unable to keep David Gilmore's guitar from spinning into arena-rock fusion or "Hope Road" from dripping into Schmaltzville. Bits of melody and texture stick, like the flute-guitar unison line in "Drag Queen Races," the interestingly stiff (but unvariegated) drumming of "The Intrepid Storm," the overlapping counter-balanced phrases in "Black Bread" (before the instrumental call-and-response drops out for multi-tracked emceeing), or the spacey looseness of "3 Guesses"(until the guitar takes its strangle hold). The first two numbers of the "Pocket Prayer" trilogy may succeed as intermission pieces - the first because Jones minds his business with his bass, the second by not forcing the composition. But lacking an insightful producer, anti-synergy prevails, holding Uncivilized Poise below the sum of its otherwise-accomplished parts.

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