27 April 2009
Jazzwise
Kevin Le Gendre


Drummer Sirota's exploration of anything from rock and funk to Afro-beat and reggae, all within the transformative framework of jazz, has made for interesting music for the best part of a decade now and this latest offering is very much in keeping with his already patented modus operandi. Hence a strong, danceable quality is maintained, with several of the pieces, whose wide source material includes Brazilian tropicalismo legend Caetano Veloso, South African diva Miriam Makeba and British punk rioters The Clash, having a sharp but sunny skip about them. With its two reeds in the front line and guitar standing as the main chordal instrument, Rebel Souls has a prickly, dry, at times Spartan tonality that is not unlike much of the Fresh Sound New Talent catalogue, and there is also a similar engagement with popular culture in so far as Sirota's band is liable to frequently glide into a dub or hip-hop pulse without compromising the improvisatory nous of the work. The strong political agenda that has always accompanied the band's music is once again at the forefront of this set and a reprise of ‘Hard Times', a 19th Century song about economic woe is a pertinent choice in these dread days where credit, whatever that could mean right now, is not as smooth as of yesteryear.