By: Bill Meredith
ost so-called "supergroups" don't live up to the hype their resumes create. Drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, guitarist Robben Ford and bassist Jimmy Haslip have collective credits from jazz (George Benson, Yellowjackets) to guitar heroes (Frank Zappa, Allan Holdsworth) to pop stars (Sting, Steely Dan), and Ford has even forged a respectable solo blues career. All are known as singular stylists: Colaiuta for his uncanny ability to subdivide any time signature; Ford for across-the-board versatility (from JimiHendrix-style feedback to Wes Montgomery-like clean tones) and Haslip for his inimitable fretless work. So does the trio's new Jing Chi CD rate? Early on, yes. "The Hong Kong Incident" provides eight minutes of introductary testimonial, as Ford explores his tonal range in what sounds like a track recorded live in the studio. Colaiuta's production-enhanced drum intro opens "Stan Key" before Haslip proves his worth on a fretted bass, driving Ford to both jazzy clean tones and biting wah-wah pedal work in a funk setting. The guitarist continues his Hendrix update (circa the late legend's final Band Of Gypsys era) with acidic figures on the strutting "Tengoku," and adopts a Texas tone a la Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Johnson for his explorations on "Crazy House." Johnson is perhaps the closest blueprint to Ford's model of combining jazz, blues and rock styles, both with and without distortion.
Shades of Hendrix, Cream, ZZ Top and Gov't Mule run through the Miles Davis-like funk of "Go Figure" (featuring an outstanding Haslip solo), the shell game of a 7/4 time signature on "Man In the Ring," and the flamenco Weather Report of "Train Song." Colaiuta's "Aurora" closes Jing Chi with a 10/8-timed scream that turns into a 4/4 whisper, proving that the drummer should have been more involved in the writing and could've been more agressive in navigating his bandmates. Guest players like keyboardist Brian Auger and saxophonist Steve Tavaglione are barely noticable throughout, so if this band's next CD is live - minus the guests, vocals, and overprogramming by Haslip and Tavaglione - the trio could truly achieve a zen-like state.
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