Captain Green offers a trippy fusion of genres in ‘Jazz Noise’

The third album from Baton Rouge funk-jazz-fusion band Captain Green, Jazz Noise, released in January, opens with a quick shot of frenzied funk reminiscent of Prince’s rhythm guitar. The next track’s horns riff furiously while the drums pop and smack. It’s clear from the get-go that these guys have chops.

There’s more evidence of Captain Green’s skill and sophistication in “Tsurutsuru,” with exotically harmonized horns suggesting a collision of jazz and classical chamber music. But then “Tsurutsuru” segues into an almost smooth-jazz groove.

Fortunately, the musically daring Captain Green is, at least most of the time, too hip to be smooth, with spacey prog-rock and fusion tendencies glaring through the cracks.

As the eight instrumental compositions proceed, the straight-up funk and jazz of “Shattered Teeth Nightmare” and “Tsurutsuru” sound more like misdirection compared to the rest. The nine musicians in this big band—including a four-piece horn section—craft music that doesn’t conform to formula.

Captain Green turns to dreamy mellowness and hybrid jazz-funk for the multilayered trip “Kitties Go to Sleep,” with soul-funk horns and keyboardist Ross Hoppe in free-form solo flight.

“The Snaffe” is another track with a split personality. Early on, it’s a melodic utopia featuring bell tones, a playful sax-and-trumpet dialogue and a soaring trumpet solo from David Melancon. But the pleasantries mutate, disjointedly, into aggressiveness of the likes of such classic prog-rock bands as Yes and Emerson Lake & Palmer. Jagged transitions are something Captain Green could work on, at least for the sake of its recordings.

Deeper into Jazz Noise, the band continues on a dark fusion path with “Dinogasm (Part 1)” and “Dinogasm (Part 2).” True to their titles, both of these ominous, atmospheric tracks could be movie soundtracks for epics set in prehistoric times. And Kevin McMann’s chaotic, free-jazz sax solo in “(Part 1)” could well have inspired the album’s title.

After McMann wails through “(Part 1),” it’s guitarist Grant Hudson’s turn to stretch in “(Part 2).” Hudson’s extended solo takes Captain Green to the bygone era of arena rock, when 20-minute solos were concert staples.

Baton Rouge has an oft-overlooked history of musical innovation, and Captain Green earns its place in that massive number.

The band will perform at the Dyson House Listening Room March 10 at 7 p.m. captaingreenmusic.com

This article was originally published in the March 2017 issue of 225 Magazine.