Wallace Roney No Room For Argument CD

With Steve Hall,Antoine Roney, Geri Allen,Adam Holzman++

Personnel: Wallace Roney (trumpet); Steve Hall, Antoine Roney (soprano & tenor saxophones, bass clarinet); Geri Allen (acoustic & Fender Rhodes pianos, synthesizer); Adam Holzman (Wurlitzer electric piano, organ, synthesizer); Buster Williams (bass); Val "Gelder" Jeanty (drums, programming); Lenny White (drums).
Recorded at Sonalyst Studios/Power Station, Waterford, Connecticut from March 31-April 3, 2000.
Personnel: Wallace Roney (trumpet); Steve Hall (bass clarinet, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone); Antoine Roney (soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone); Geri Allen (piano, electric piano, Fender Rhodes piano, synthesizer); Adam Holzman (electric piano, organ, Wurlitzer organ, synthesizer, mini-Moog synthesizer); Lenny White, Val "Gelder" Jeanty (drums).
Audio Mixers: Dan Gellert; Adam Holzman.
Recording information: Power Station, Waterford, CT (03/31/2000-04/03/2000); Sonalyst Studios (03/31/2000-04/03/2000).
Photographer: Melanie Dunea.
Arranger: Wallace Roney.
Wallace Roney's No Room for Argument is about "heritage, mentors, wisdom, responsibility, and spirituality." This CD is packed with excellent straight-ahead, avant-garde, and free jazz that also features samples from speeches given by Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and audio by Deepak Chopra. Roney's evolved, imaginative use of his muted trumpet to achieve the meditative and philosophical concepts inherent in the opener "No Room for Argument" is accomplished effectively. Roney weaves its sound into the well-known orations delivered by King and Malcolm X, giving each note a new design that offers his solution to the challenges of performing respected works in a new medium. His mentor piece, an arrangement and direction of "Homage & Acknowledgement," a vital rework featuring the duality of the great Buster Williams at work on the bassline for John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme," and Roney's interpretation of the trumpet sounds of Miles Davis on "Filles de Kilimanjaro" is a exceptional seven-minute masterwork that supplies both the spiritual depth and insistent ground rhythms inherent in the original recordings of the '60s. "Virtual Chocolate Cherry" is a boundless arena for the world-class drummer Lenny White. He makes a very strong impression and his very presence on this CD serves to further the respect Roney has for the lasting mark on his playing on this CD -- the open sound of the '60s that Lenny White helped Miles Davis to initiate. He gives his Gretsch a workout tempered by excellent solos from Geri Allen and Adam Holzman. This CD is a great one and shows Roney as a leading jazz trumpeter. ~ Paula Edelstein

CMJ (11/20/00, p.26) - "...It finds Roney brimming with the sort of great lyrical lines that led to Miles Davis comparisons, and the music has a nice, hard edge to it..."
JazzTimes (3/01, p.83) - "...When Roney sheds the pseudo-funk and retro-fusion gimmicks, he displays the melodic verve and pungent with that got everyone excited when he worked in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in the early '80s..."