Rudy Royston: Day
Greenleaf Music
It's not entirely clear whether Rudy Royston's comment “It's never really a ‘drummer's record'” was uttered in reference to the 2018 self-titled debut by his Flatbed Buggy outfit or its recently released follow-up Day, but the point's moot. Yes, Royston is the bandleader, and, yes, most of the tunes are his; Flatbed Buggy is, however, a band first and foremost and all the better for it—how could it be otherwise when it features cellist Hank Roberts, bass clarinetist John Ellis, accordionist Gary Versace, and bassist Joe Martin. All, Royston included, have played with the upper echelon of contemporary jazz artists, from Bill Frisell and Rudresh Mahanthappa to Dave Douglas, on whose Greenleaf Music label Day appears.
Of course the musicians not only stamp their distinctive voices on the project, their instruments bring with them associations too. It's possible to hear strains of zydeco when Versace plays, and Roberts adds hints of country and classical to the project too. For the quintet's second album, Royston's fashioned it around the day concept, specifically the idea of a day extending from morning to night and experienced under the dark cloud of the pandemic. If such a concept might suggest the recording will be gloomy, Day is hardly a one-note exercise in lugubriousness. There's plenty of joy, and the music often romps with abandon.
Each of the ten pieces is tied to a specific time of day, with Royston pinning “Morning” to 7:00 a.m., “Look to the Hills” noon, “The Mokes” 2:00 p.m., and “It's Time to Sleep” day's end. Whereas Roberts' entrancing, album-closing “A.M. Hours” aligns seamlessly with the theme, Martin's “Limeni Village” would seem to be something of an outlier, given that it's titled after a seaside villa in southern Greece. No one should fuss over that detail, however, when the concept fades into the background once the music starts. Throughout this Royston-produced release, the combination of cello, accordion, and bass clarinet gives Flatbed Buggy's sound distinction and character. Even better, Roberts, Ellis, and Versace are fabulous soloists (consider the wailing trade-offs between the latter two in “Limeni Village” as evidence), and the Martin-Royston tag-team gives the music ample jump.
When “Morning” begins, it's hard not to hear the influence of the music Frisell issued with Roberts, accordionist Guy Klucevsek, and clarinetist Don Byron at different times. Regardless, once the tune kicks in and morphs into an exuberantly swinging, New Orleans-styled celebration Flatbed Buggy sounds like nothing but itself. Irrepressibly funky and grooving, “Morning” bodes well for the hours to come. Roberts' plucking animates “Thank You For This Day” with feverish energy and, coupled with the frenetic drive of Martin and Royston, lays a foundation for Ellis and Versace. As the bluesy dirge “Look to the Hills,” heartfelt lament “Missing You” (the title perhaps referring to the album's two dedicatees, Royston's late brother Ritchie and Ron Miles, the jazz cornetist who died in early 2022), and aptly drowsy “It's Time To Sleep” show, not everything's delivered at a furious clip. The album's at its best, though, in its livelier tunes, the rollicking “Five-Thirty Strut” a case in point. Royston's come a long way since his 2014 debut 303, and given that it would be hard to imagine a better outlet for his vision than Flatbed Buggy let's hope he's able to keep the band together for awhile yet.July 2023