Many jazz artists try to force sampling, computer loops and synthesized textures into a relationship with acoustic instruments that just doesn't work. On his new release, "Freak In," Dave Douglas, though, lets both sides work things out on their own terms. The result is a musical friction that produces both heat and light.
Following his critically acclaimed work of last year, "The Infinite," and 2000 Downbeat Jazz Critics' poll winner, "Soul On Soul" (with several more releases packed in between), Douglas continues to work on paying off his trumpeting, composing and band leading debt to Miles Davis. This debt, though, involves little guilt and a lot of creativity. It would be easy to criticize Douglas for not being Miles, but even Miles himself was criticized for not being Miles after each of his successive transformations. Douglas has his own rich vision of how to fuse rock, funk and jazz elements and how to parcel out sonic space between acoustic and electric sounds.
Douglas uses electronic elements more extensively here than on his past releases. The sonic foreground is still his acoustic jazz trumpeting, but behind it rests a lush background of electronic textures produced by keyboardist Jamie Saft. The other musicians, an eclectic group of downtown New York jazz innovators, including Marc Ribot on guitar and Joey Baron on drums, add their own elements to the overall sound. Occasionally, these mixed-in extras -- reverb guitar and thickly synthesized beats -- threaten to slow the forward momentum, but even then they make for interesting moments of well-considered pause.