Billy Mohler: Ultraviolet
Contagious Music

I recall Lou Reed years ago professing his love for Ornette Coleman's “Ramblin'” and arguing that its spirit had as much to do with rock'n'roll as jazz. A similar claim might be made about the music on bassist Billy Mohler's third album as a bandleader, Ultraviolet. Partnering with drummer Nate Wood, tenor saxophonist/clarinetist Chris Speed, and trumpeter Shane Endsley, Mohler plays acoustic jazz that, yes, swings but also rocks, the result infectious music for the body and mind. Recorded at Lucy's Meat Market in Los Angeles, Ultraviolet is also concise in the extreme, with no long-winded solos pushing tracks into the double digits. Instead, we get tidy, to-the-point statements that make their case with urgency and then step aside.

A twenty-year veteran of LA's studio scene, the Grammy-winning bassist benefited greatly from his time at the Berklee College of Music and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz (now the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz) and with Ultraviolet builds on the considerable momentum generated by his previous quartet release Anatomy. It was during his late ‘90s tenure at Berklee that Mohler, prodded by one of his professors, made the move from electric bass to acoustic, and he's never looked back. His meaty, muscular tone is one of the best things about the new record, especially when it's coupled with Wood's drumming. Look no further than the album's title cut for an illustration of the thrust the two regularly get up to, with the cut's bomb-dropping drive sweetened by the high-pitched pop of Wood's snare and the front-liners declaiming the tune's soulful melodic figures. Animated by Mohler's pulse, the later “Evolution” similarly manifests a fabulous positive energy, buoyed as it is by an irrepressible dance vibe and funky groove.

Many a time a bassist's lost in the mix, overpowered by the volume of the others' playing: not so here, as Mohler's authoritative presence powers the band audibly. It's easy to believe his contention that he starts the composition process with a bass line when it's always such an integral part of the structure. That grounding gives Speed and Endsley a superb ground to emote over, which the two do throughout handily. Check, for example, the smooth acrobatics the two drape across the terrific title track.

Another detail worth noting has to do with the post-production effects Mohler and producer Dan Seeff subtly apply to the material. That's especially audible at the start of “Disorder II” when a warbly, sci-fi noise fades in and out of the performance. In truth, the shadowy cut's interesting enough without the added effect, but it doesn't detract from it either. The album includes a few atmospheric vignettes (e.g., the opening “Matador”), but its major selling-point is the uptempo material. With Endsley and Speed delivering the theme in unison and the others stoking fire alongside them, tracks such as “The Wait” and “Reconstruction” even start to call to mind a glorious ‘60s Blue Note or Prestige session without in any way sounding retrograde. True, at thirty-two minutes, Ultraviolet is modest on duration grounds, but no one'll grumble about bloat.

November 2023