I can’t be alone in admitting to be unfamiliar with the name Doug Carn. There’s a touch of 70s funk to JID005 - and that’s a good thing. Carn’s previous albums have passed me by and I’ll be catching up on them as we head into 2021. Jazz is Dead describe the genre of this latest album as ‘jazz, hip hop, funk, noir’ and it certainly is full of  influences and nods in the direction of all of that.

All the tracks on this album are a creative collaborative between Doug Carn, Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad and feature Carn’s Hammond organ as well as Vocoder and Monophonic synthesiser, plus his co-creators on bass guitar and Fender Rhodes piano. Additional colour is added by Zach Ramacier’s trumpet, Shai Golan and Gary Bartz on alto sax, plus Malachi Morehead on drums.

These 11 tracks - unsurprisingly - revolve around Carn’s virtuosic and funky organ, from the opening melody of Dimensions through to the mesmeric Desires, There is something reminiscent of Lonnie Liston Smith, Herbie Hancock and George Duke, but also something intensely individual and creative. In tracks like Desert Rain, the organ soars above the rest of the ensemble, dancing in and out of the melodic lines and improvisation.

Take a listen to Desert Rain here:

“I was barely a year old when Doug Carn released Infant Eyes. To me the album is an expedition of warmth, hope, majesty and pride, where you cross the bridge of venerable wonders on supernatural tones of innovation,” says Shaheed Muhammad. “If you grew up in the ‘70s then you know exactly how consequential his art is. There are so many levels to this and time is never enough to unfold it, but Adrian and I were blessed to spend a twinkle of time with the honourable Doug Carn. We recorded an album that bridges to dimensions seemingly fa-miliar but yet uncharted and raw.”

Reflecting on Carn’s legacy and the opportunity to collaborate, Younge reminds us: “Doug Carn reigns as one of the greatest jazz organists of all time. Doug Carn JID005 is a testament to his continued legacy and funky contributions to jazz.”