Kendrick Scott - Corridors (2023)

In 2019, drummer and composer Kendrick Scott's quintet, Oracle, released A Wall Becomes a Bridge, a multi-textured album that addressed both personal and political concerns. Bridge includes pop elements, fragments of spoken word, and the chordal colorings of Mike Moreno's electric guitar and Taylor Eigsti's piano.

On Scott's follow-up, 2023's Corridors, he leads a trio that includes tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III who, like Scott, is a Houston native, and the bassist Reuben Rogers, who is originally from the Virgin Islands. The three-player setting offers pleasures distinct from the denser predecessor. The genesis of this recording started during the pandemic and the smaller group has a sense of intimacy that resonates with that situation. Scott wrote or co-wrote all of the album's material except for Bobby Hutcherson's "Isn't This My Sound Around Me?."

The title track opens with a Rogers bass solo marked by pinched harmonics and slides. When Rogers' bandmates enter, sax and bass engage in interplay where phrases start on one instrument and are finished or riffed on by the other. Scott's drumming is full of surprising details that weave everything together. It's a sharply alert performance and one imbued with mystery.

"A Voice Through the Door" incorporates melodic contours that recall classical music. The piece starts with an extended unaccompanied tenor sax statement by Smith, who intones every note with care. Brushed drums and cymbals and steadying bass emerge to provide super nuanced accompaniment. (A nice touch: Scott quietly singing the melody in tandem with the sax.) When Rogers solos, the contrast of his thick sound with the light-as-air drumming and saxophone is striking.

The finely paced Corridors closes with "Threshold," where Scott's initial drum salvo leads to the punchy theme. Smith moves from bluesy lines to more abstruse shapes with ease as Scott and Rogers dig into rhythms that can stutter or swing. The composition, which comes off as both energetic and low-key, stands out on an album full of strong writing.

TRACKLIST

1.What Day Is It? 04:54
2.Corridors 07:45
3.A Voice Through The Door 06:52
4.One Door Closes 00:40
5.Isn’t This My Sound Around Me? 05:08
6.One Door Closes, Another Opens 04:53
7.Your Destiny Awaits 05:44
8.Another Opens 00:51
9.Threshold 05:40