Garrett Saracho, Adrian Younge, Ali Shaheed Muhammad - Garrett Saracho: Jazz Is Dead 15 LP

While they are best known for working alongside some of the most recognizable names in jazz, Jazz Is Dead now invites you to meet an innovator that has largely gone unheard of, until now. In the early 1970s, Garrett Saracho was a recording artist signed to the legendary Impulse Records, who came up in Los Angeles’ fertile underground jazz community. Due to a tragic combination of label mismanagement and geopolitical intervention, his sole record, 1973’s En Medio, fell largely under the radar of even the most astute collectors and fanatics. After spending the following decades in obscurity working in the film industry and touring with his cousins in the rock band Redbone, Saracho stepped into the Linear Labs studio with Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad to craft an intoxicating and kinetic rush of Latin Soul, Funk, and Psychedelic Jazz. While you may not know his name, your ears will soon know the genius of Garrett Saracho. Album opener “Sabor Del Ritmo” (Taste of Rhythm) is immediately transportive, as flutes swirl and envelop you, placing you at the center of Saracho’s meditative piano. Restrained but upbeat, it’s a wonderful showcase of the different directions the rest of the arrangements go in. “Altitude” sounds as if it were plucked from a coveted library music release, with haunting strings and a tense climbing piano melody that fits perfectly as a chase scene soundtrack. Keeping in step with similar cinematic flourishes is “White Buffalo”, with a descending bass line that takes you into a villain’s subterranean lair. On “Trucha”, the percussion speeds up and slows down, remaining unpredictable and elusive. As the horn section pours in with solos, the beat slows down one last time to give way to Saracho’s impressionistic keys.