Slaughterhouse 3 is a tremendous example of an act determined to keep fusion alive, thriving, and relevant. This entirely improvised album finds bassist Gary Willis and drummer Kirk Covington—the Tribal Tech rhythm section—and saxophonist Llibert Fortuny exploring wildly diverse territory ranging from the mercurial to the meditative. Funky, freewheeling tracks, thrashy noisefests, loop-based urban soundscapes, and ambient explorations are just a few of the directions the trio navigates on their debut release.
This is no mere jam band. The album’s 11 tracks are impressively tight and cohesive, and the players have a near supernatural ability to follow each other at the turn of a dime. Willis’s propulsive, addictive lines take center stage on several cuts and find him combining myriad approaches into a seamless whole. For instance, on “Let’s Go,” Willis mixes a fat groove, electronic treatments, lightning-fast jazz runs, and a liberal dose of gleaming harmonics to dazzling effect. He also serves as the sonic glue that binds Covington’s alternately raucous and sensitive percussion bent and Fortuny’s unique sax approach, which incorporates real-time sampling, feedback, free-jazz squeaks and squawks, and gorgeous melodies. Unabashedly eclectic and hugely entertaining, Slaughterhouse 3 is one of the jazz-rock highlights of recent years.
-Anil Prasad