Back To My Roots by David Mash

 

Back To My Roots

By

David Mash

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

I would have to say that this has to be one of my most interesting projects this year without doubt, as today I am lucky enough to voyage with David Mash as we dive on deep into his latest album Back To My Roots, in what would turn out to be the most fascinating mixture of genres all on one album I have thus far encountered.

The opening of the album is enthralling and called Drain The Swamp, a true mixture of new age, meets blues rock, with a little global fusion stirred into a weave of a song so beautifully composed and arranged. Throughout this release you will hear the stunning presentations on guitar by Mash, whilst his partner in this project Bruce Nifong on alto saxophone brings to the table some of the smoothest performances you could ever wish for.

The beauty of music is that it is international and flavoursome, and whilst we may not have heard of some of the artists we come across before, we are sure to find comparisons from our own cultures or countries. Back To My Roots the title track was something to treasure, as a little funk was brought into the scheme of things in a way that at times reminded me of a funked up Soft Machine, or even a prog styled version of the Average White Band, regardless this was simply amazing stuff.

One of my personal favourites was the following musical narrative entitled Just Mo; a full flowing sax from Nifong drove the song along on a highway of charm and colourful textures, in a rhythmic pastiche of sultry sound that was all to addictive and entrancing, whilst offerings like the Appellation Trail drifted across the horizon of a better tomorrow, with the simply beautiful layered percussive elements, keyboards and sax, in a TV theme waiting to happen.

On Blüz For Rufe we have a somewhat deeper offering created by the artist, one thanks to the instrumentation employed it gave us the ever eager listeners an almost progressive jazz modality of sorts, the funked up bass line in partnership with the percussion and sax, ushered forth a sound I hadn’t heard the link of since the Icelandic jazz fusion band Mezzoforte, but harder.

So we can now swim in the deeper waters of the release and as we do so we come across a comforting creation entitled Prime. A soft tapestry of sound can be found here of a symbiotic partnership of both guitar and sax, only this time we can add into the mix the sublime bass presentation from James Nifong, this for me created a back line of sound that raised the narration of electric guitar and sax to an even higher level, and once more would remind me of UK jazz funk pop band Level 42 in style from their early years in the 80’s

Ictonomics was a piece that you are always glad you came across, and found well in the deeper waters of the release the combination of sax and guitar from Bruce Nifong and David Mash was delightfully funky to say the least, and its rhythmic pastiche of a timbre that was truly hard to get out of your mind later on in the day, a delightful issue to have from what is a wonderfully fluent arrangement.

The penultimate offering is entitled Bottles and is as smooth as it gets, one could easily see this being used on a TV show, it’s anthem like manifestation of tone was an utter pleasure to float in for the duration of the composition, the classy percussion and saxophone heralding a bright and ever onward musical arrangement that was simply blissful.

The title to the concluding track here may give the game away, and called Funktion 80•24. Why not indeed complete the project with the vibe that originally created the album, and its consistency like this that needs to happen to create something appealing for entire release, one with both Nifong and David Mash in full flow, and what was a sublime and crafted way with which to leave the album it was indeed.

Back To My Roots by David Mash was indeed a fascinating project to write about, but music of this elk I could listen to all day and never tire of, here the artist takes us back to revisit his Detroit roots, and in doing so manifests a musical reality that is both palpable and addictive, and with some of the most sublime performances to brighten our days, so where ever on the globe we may live, may the funk be with you.