MARCH 2002

CD REVIEWS
STANTON MOORE
Flyin‚ The Koop
(Blue Thumb Records)
By Paul Rosner

When something makes it big, everyone wants a piece of it. Actors from successful TV shows are routinely offered their own spin-offs; when a company makes money with an idea, other organizations quickly follow suit with slightly varied imitations. Since the jam band scene’s emergence in the ‘90s, it seems that every group that has ever made an album spawns at least one solo record from among its members—many of them sounding very much like the parent band. The acclaimed New Orleans funk act Galactic is no exception to the rule, except that drummer Stanton Moore’s second solo outing, Flyin’ The Koop, is an excellent and diverse listening experience that rarely sounds like the output of his main group. To make this trick work, Moore brought in Big Easy guitarist Brian Seeger (who was asked to contribute several compositions), bassist Chris Wood (Medeski Martin & Wood), and the avant-funk saxophone combination of Skerik (Garage A Trois) and Karl Denson (Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe), each of whom plays a vital part in this quintessential New Orleans album.

Part of what makes this record succeed is its unique line-up—two saxophones fill the space that might have been taken by a keyboard, percussionist, second guitarist, or other combination of horns and winds. In fact, since Seeger only adds parts to four of the record’s twelve cuts, the predominant outfit here is two saxes, bass, and drums, creating a palette that is both sparse and terrifically rhythmic. Denson and Skerik work brilliantly together, whether in coordinated lines of harmony (opening track “Tang The Hump”) or playing off each other in bursts of sonic energy (“Launcho Diablo,” one of three songs that feature Skerik’s eerie saxophonics, an effect that makes his woodwind instrument sound suspiciously like a distorted guitar). Seeger’s compositions (“Let’s Go,” “Hunch,” and “For The Record”), on the other hand, lead the group more toward Meters-influenced and soul jazz-inflected grooves, with guitar taking a more centralized role. As one half the rhythm section, Chris Wood is spectacular throughout, alternating freely between a Hoffner and an upright bass, the latter with which he crafts infectious, melodic lines to drive the hand-clapping “Prairie Sunset” and the jazzy “Magnolia Triangle.” All of this would be moot without the glue that holds the project together, drummer Stanton Moore; Moore's fiery, polyrhythmic, multi-textured trap set work injects a visceral energy into each and every song, while his steady hands and feet control the ebb and flow of the album with ease. As previously mentioned, Flyin’ The Koop is a diverse affair, symbolized best by “Amy’s Lament,” a New Orleans-style funeral march written by Moore, and the album-ending “Organized Chaos,” a strange and aptly-named cut that features Skerik’s saxophonics, Wood’s solid bass lines, and Moore’s spirited drumming and loops.

The record's sound is further broadened by sporadic appearances from percussionist Chris Lovejoy (Charlie Hunter Trio) and the Wild Magnolia Mardi Gras Indians, who add some wonderfully dirty vocal samples to Wood, Moore, and Lovejoy’s swinging beat on “Fallin’ Off The Floor,” which is perhaps the album’s most interesting track. “Fallin’ Off” sums up Flyin’ The Koop fairly well, too, in that the song is hard to pin down, a melting pot of sounds and influences—in other words, it’s just like the city of New Orleans. Ultimately, Stanton Moore achieves separation from Galactic with this solo turn (most likely one of his main objectives), but more importantly, Moore drops an inventive and musically challenging record that gets better with each repeated spin.