Rudy Royston's Flatbed Buggy

Drummer Rudy Royston's newest album, Flatbed Buggy, is designed to "evoke memories of [his] bucolic youth" in Texas--the cover and title suggest a music more akin to Americana than the purer forms of jazz. Royston's vision, however, is more sophisticated than all that imagery suggests. He has assembled a quintet that is unusual enough to stray away from jazz traditions, such as Gary Versace's accordion and Hank Roberts' cello, but the straightforward elements--Joe Martin's bass and John Ellis' bass clarinet and saxes--provide such a strong foundation that this album becomes more than just childhood memories. It becomes a journey that chronicles a lifetime of musical education.

This is an unusual jazz album, with warmth and a pixie heart, a little dusty on the surfaces but very stable and reliable. The Texas of Royston's youth provides plenty of flavor here, with Versace and Roberts adding just a touch of zydeco and bluegrass accents. Roberts' cello is unusually versatile in songs such as in the title track, where he slides into the higher registers and he starts to mimic a front porch fiddle. Royston is another of those drummer-leaders I've been talking about lately--he directs his quintet with momentum that never ebbs, with a flawless energy that brings out the tiniest details of his vision while coaxing a sense of unity. "I wanted us all to be constantly playing," Royston explains. "I wanted us all to orchestrate or color or have a little input regardless of who is soloing."

I find this music to be enormously appealing, perhaps because it reminds me of my favorite jazz album of all time--Sonny Rollins' Way Out West. Rollins adopted western-style themes in his compositions, especially in regards to Shelly Manne's use of wooden blocks and cowbells. That trio wasn't playing country music or Americana as much as a vivid new form of jazz that added an unusually descriptive language to standard jazz themes. Royston uses that same subtlety to infuse these original compositions with, well, originality.

In other words, Flatbed Buggy has a heart of pure jazz even if it lives in a more rustic past. Royston's ideas are painted on unvarnished wood rather than the bricks of a building in the big city, and its steady and thoughtful pace keeps these memories faithful even when the band gets dynamic and inventive. Another unusual influence on these complex cadences are brief interludes such as "Dirty Stetson," "Hold My Mule" and "I Guess It's Time to Go." These little vignettes are direct and to the point--they describe scenes that are fleeting but still contain bold flavors that bleed into the major songs. That's just one more way in which Flatbed Buggy will stick with you, the same way Texas stuck with Rudy Royston.