Hazmat Modine – Box Of Breath (2019)

> The album

Hazmat extravagapizza

This is one of the most unusual stuff I've heard lately ! The recipe is simple, it's like an extravagant improvised home-made pizza : take a blues-based pastry, open your musical fridge, look what's in stock, take some of each stuff you think will fit together, put what you chose on the pastry and bake in the oven. Then you give it a strange name, why not Hazmat Modine, it sounds good, and the deal (or rather the pizza) is foregone !
The "Hazmat Modine" is a cross-cultural dish made of blues, R'n'B, brass jazz (preferably eastern Europe Balkans and klezmer style) and Afro-beat rhythms, with a pinch of (Middle) Eastern music, baked with an approach often categorized as "ethnic jazz" or "world fusion".

A look at the band members profile helps to understand the various influences that each one brought to the group. Wade Schuman, the leader, is originally a painter who loved jazz and set himself to become a harmonica blower and gritty singer, and co-writes most of the songs with Erik Della Penna. This one, banjo and guitar specialist, has a more folk background, but also works for television and on musicals. Tuba player Joseph Daley is said to be one of the best American ”Lower Brass" specialists. Canadian born Patrick Simard, in charge of drums and percussions, has studied Moroccan Gnaoua music and traditional drumming in Benin, Senegal or Cuba. Pam Fleming (trumpet, flugelhorn) has worked with reggae artists like Burning Spear and Dennis Brown, as well as several klezmer bands. Steve Elson (baritone and tenor saxophone, clarinet, flute and duduk ― an oboe from Armenian origin) has more a R'n'B background. Israel native Reut Regev is famous as a trombone specialist. The guests include Balla Kouyate from Mali on balafon* (here present on half of the tracks) or violinist Charlie Burnham, an old accomplice of modern jazz guitarist James Blood Ulmer.
Such a musical melting pot couldn't be from anywhere but a cosmopolitan city like New York. But none being a prophet in his own country, Hazmat Modine has probably toured abroad more than in the US, and in doing so, ingested and digested many forms of music encountered on the road.

Their songs are in perpetual motion, all but schmaltzy, and never end the way you expect. For example the first track, "Crust Of Bread", starts like a kind of "afrobeat brass country blues" with a bubbling King Sunny Ade-like guitar and balafon rhythm, before evolving towards a R'n'B and klezmer thing with horns and even a Herbie Mann style flute.
Banjo appears on "Box Of Breath", a real hypnotic Hill country blues, sprinkled from time to time with riffs from the R'n'B/klezmer horn section. "Be There" a R'n'B with harmonica explodes into a trumpet and tuba final, while "Hoarder" sounds like a "Pink Panther"-like tune played by a New Orleans funeral parade brass band.
"Lonely Man" has a definite African twist, "Get Get Out" a klezmer one. "Lazy Time", "In Our Home" and the "Ain't Going That Way" lament are blues mixed with jazzy klezmer horns spiced with blues harmonica. The funeral march rhythmed blues "Dark River" puts Shuman's harmonica up front. Back to African beat with "Delivery Man" which ends up in a definite klezmer explosion. The false last track, "Extra-Deluxe-Supreme", is a funky half spoken piece. Finally, the real last, supposedly hidden, track "Sound Check In China" was recorded in China as explained in the title on Shuman's cellphone during a tour of the band in the Great Wall empire.

Hazmat Modine is a unique blues/afrojazz/klezmer experience. You have to hear it ! Then it's up to you to decide if you like it or not...

Hazmat Modine Live
> At the New Morning in Paris (France) in 2016 (27 mn) - With Wade Schuman (harmonica, pan flute, vocals), Erik Della Penna (guitar, vocals), Michael Gomez (guitar), Steve Elson (saxophone), Mazz Swift (violin, vocals), Pam Fleming (trumpet), Jon Sass (tuba), Kevin Garcia (drums) : https://youtu.be/BVFd1ZXgvs0
> In Ukraine at the Kyiv Klezmer fest 2019 (73 mn) : https://youtu.be/12IF_SZd_As
> At the Kantine in Köln (Germany) in 2014 : https://youtu.be/CUzU5EcFB90

 * About Balla Kouyaté
- Balla Kouyaté and the balafon : https://youtu.be/EJvQ4T7YoUg
- Balla and children : https://youtu.be/GHj0fax5ylY
- With Hazmat Modine in 2020 (47 sec) : https://youtu.be/AUoRmQtTYGE 

Who plays what (tracks detailed credits)
01 - Crust Of Bread (4:26) Balafon – Balla Kouyate / Baritone Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Contra-Alto Clarinet – Steve Elson / Bread & Crust Percussion – Kevin Garcia / Trombone – Reut Regev / Trumpet – Pam Fleming / Tuba – Joseph Daley / Vocals, Fipple Flute, Bread & Crust Percussion – Wade Schuman / Vocals, Guitar – Erik Della Penna
02 - Box Of Breath (3:56) Balafon – Balla Kouyate / Drums – Tim Keiper / Percussion – Patrick Simard / Tenor Saxophone – Steve Elson / Trombone – Reut Regev Trumpet – Pam Fleming / Tuba – Joseph Daley / Violin – Mazz Swift / Vocals, Banjo Guitar – Erik Della Penna / Vocals, Resonator Guitar – Wade Schuman / Breath Orchestration – Scott Lehrer
03 - Be There (4:55) Drums – Tim Keiper / Percussion – Patrick Simard / Tenor Saxophone – Steve Elson / Trombone – Reut Regev / Trumpet – Pam Fleming / Tuba – Joseph Daley / Violin – Charlie Burnham / Vocals – Mazz Swift / Vocals, Guitar – Erik Della Penna / Vocals, Harmonica – Wade Schuman
04 - Hoarder (5:39) Balafon – Balla Kouyate / Drums – Tim Keiper / Tenor Saxophone – Steve Elson / Trombone – Reut Regev / Trumpet – Pam Fleming / Tuba – Joseph Daley / Guitar, Banjo Guitar – Erik Della Penna / Diatonic Harmonica, Vocals – Wade Schuman
05 - Lonely Man (5:46) Balafon – Balla Kouyate / Drums – Tim Keiper / Percussion – Patrick Simard / Tenor Saxophone – Steve Elson / Trombone – Reut Regev / Trumpet – Pam Fleming / Tuba – Joseph Daley / Viola – Charlie Burnham / Vocals – Mazz Swift / Diatonic Harmonica, Vocals – Wade Schuman / Vocals, Guitar – Erik Della Penna
06 - Get Get Out (4:34) Drums – Tim Keiper / Idiophone [Daxophone] – Mark Stewart / Tenor Saxophone – Steve Elson / Trombone – Reut Regev / Trumpet – Pam Fleming / Tuba – Joseph Daley / Vocals, Percussion – Patrick Simard / Diatonic Harmonica, Vocals – Wade Schuman / Vocals, Guitar, Banjo Guitar – Erik Della Penna
07 - Lazy Time (3:48) Drums – Tim Keiper / Percussion – Patrick Simard / Tenor Saxophone – Steve Elson / Trombone – Reut Regev / Trumpet – Pam Fleming / Tuba – Joseph Daley / Vocals, Guitar – Erik Della Penna / Vocals, Harmonica, Guitar, Human Beatbox & Beatbox Bass – Son Of Dave / Diatonic Harmonica, Vocals – Wade Schuman
08 - In Our Home (4:41) Drums – Tim Keiper / Percussion – Patrick Simard / Tenor Saxophone – Steve Elson / Trombone – Reut Regev / Trumpet – Pam Fleming / Tuba – Joseph Daley / Violin, Vocals – Mazz Swift / Banjo Guitar, Vocals, Guitar – Erik Della Penna / Diatonic Harmonica – Wade Schuman
09 - Ain't Going That Way (4:34) Balafon – Balla Kouyate / Drums, Trash Percussion – Tim Keiper / Tenor Saxophone – Steve Elson / Trombone – Reut Regev / Trumpet – Pam Fleming / Tuba – Joseph Daley / Vocals – Mazz Swift, Patrick Simard / Banjo Guitar, Vocals, Guitar – Erik Della Penna / Diatonic Harmonica, Vocals – Wade Schuman
10 - Dark River (3:11) Balafon – Balla Kouyate / Drums – Tim Keiper / Percussion – Kevin Garcia / Trumpet – Pam Fleming / Banjo Guitar, Vocals – Erik Della Penna / Percussion, Solo Tuned Harmonica – Wade Schuman
11 - Delivery Man (4:27) Balafon – Balla Kouyate / Baritone Saxophone, Contra-Alto Clarinet – Steve Elson / Drums, Percussion – Tim Keiper / Trombone – Reut Regev / Trumpet – Pam Fleming / Tuba – Joseph Daley / Banjo Guitar, Vocals – Erik Della Penna / Solo Tuned Harmonica – Wade Schuman
12 - Extra-Deluxe-Supreme (6:02) Contra-Alto Clarinet, Baritone Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – Steve Elson / Drums – Tim Keiper / Percussion – Patrick Simard / Trombone – Reut Regev / Trumpet – Pam Fleming / Diatonic Harmonica, Vocals – Wade Schuman / Vocals, Guitar – Erik Della Penna
13 - Sound Check In China (hidden track) (3:11)  Recorded by Wade Schuman on cellphone at SNPAC Theater, Xian, China, on Oct. 19, 2018. Tuba - Joseph Daley / Banjo - Erik Della Penna / Harmonica - Wade Schuman / Drums - Patrick Simard

Added background noises recorded on cellphone in India, except #13.
All tracks written by Wade Schuman & Erik Della Penna, except track 7, Lazy Time, written by Wade Schuman & Benjamin Darvill.
Label : Jaro – JARO 4342-2 (Jaro Medien GmbH, Germany)
Issued on May 10, 2019
Copyright © Jaro Medien GmbH

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