Ernest Ranglin and Avila
Bless Up
Avila Street

www.avilastreetrecords.com
 

A vividly enchanting, genre-bending 16-song project (eleven new Ranglin tunes among them) from the newly energized ska and reggae master guitarist – whose signature, muted upstroke and chord clustered sound was the backbone of a number of hits by the likes of Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, the Skatalites and Toots and the Maytals. Sympathetically accompanied by a band that came together in Sonoma, California called Avila, with Yossi Fine on bass, Jonathan Korty on keys, Michael Peloquin on saxes and chromatic harmonica, trumpeter Modesto Briseno, trombonist Charlie Wilson and multi-instrumentalist Eric Levy, Ranglin ingeniously adds modernistic jazz (think Wes Montgomery), rock and world music strains to his patented, Jamaica-rooted sound – constantly stretching musical boundaries and experimenting with a wide variety of flavors, rhythms and textures while encouraging his international band to do likewise. The aggregation’s jaw-dropping virtuosity is especially evident on tracks like the panoramic “Bond Street Express,” the Strayhorn/Ellington-like title song, a pair of sultry reggae numbers (“Follow On” and “You Too”), a meditative “Bra Joe From Kilimanjoro” (the Abdullah Ibrahim classic) and the dub effects-enhanced “Ska Renzo.” Ranglin is one of those few visionary musicians who are able to seamlessly blend the past, the present and the future with his in-the-pocket yet constantly adventurous fretwork. A great follow-up to 2012’s Avila outing.

— Gary von Tersch