Binker Golding - Dream Like A Dogwood Wild Boy

2022 release

Saxophonist/bandleader Binker Golding has been on the U.K. jazz scene since 2010 and has made an indelible mark. He began his recording career with Zara MacFarlane's band where he met future musical partner, drummer Moses Boyd. As Binker & Moses they've released five albums ranging from free jazz improv to funky hard bop and R&B-inflected grooves. Golding has also issued freely improvised dates with Elliot Galvin and noted vanguardists Steve Noble and John Edwards. He also issued 2019's fine, straight-ahead Abstractions of Reality Past and Incredible Feathers. All that said, however, doesn't prepare the listener for the abundant musicality on Dream Like a Dogwood Wild Boy.

Golding leads a quintet here that features his longtime rhythm section of drummer Sam Jones and bassist Daniel Casimir, first-call session guitarist Billy Adamson, and London piano wizard Sarah Tandy, whose 2019 debut, Infection in the Sentence, sent jazz critics reeling with praise. Golding's approach is a formally composed seven-track set that crisscrosses hard bop, blues, Americana, heartland rock, soul-jazz, and more. His tone through most of the tunes here reflects the twin influences of Sonny Rollins and Eddie Harris. Golding is a dexterous musician who is more interested in conveying emotion than chops; he enlisted Hugh Padgham to underscore his M.O. with a crystalline mix.

Opener "Wide Open Lows" is introduced with Adamson's bottleneck slide on a steel-bodied guitar. His blues ring true before the band joins in for a wide-open euphoric Americana progression that owes a bit to the approach of Pat Metheny circa 80/81. Guitar, bass, and piano entwine through an intricate yet resonant melody before Golding and Tandy deliver fine solos. "Love Me Like a Woman" is a collision of deep soul tenor and biting, electric blue guitar. "My Two Dads" offers a catchy intricate melody amid rolling tom-toms, a gospelized piano that nods to Joe Sample of the Jazz Crusaders, and fingerpicked electric guitars. "Howling and Drinking in God's Own Country" initially weds a hard bop tenor to slide guitar blues atop a second-line New Orleans R&B rhythm. Casimir shifts the dynamic to embrace Tandy's driving, knotty, fingerpopping hard bop solo before Golding answers with a scorcher of his own. "'Til My Heart Stops" is a wrenching, deeply melodic, tender soul ballad underscored by lush group interplay. "With What I Know Know" weds the front-line instruments in a deftly threaded head balancing post-bop and pop. Golding's tone recalls Michael Brecker's warm, refined, big-boned sound. Closer "All Out of Fairy Tales" is a rock-tinged, gospel-inflected ballad whose hummable lyric is amplified by Tandy's deeply moving solo. Dream Like a Dogwood Wild Boy is Golding's finest effort to date. It showcases beautifully written tunes played by a stellar simpatico band. At once accessible and evocative, it establishes Golding on the global jazz scene as an intuitive democratic bandleader, sophisticated composer, and imaginative soloist.

Thom Jurek