I've always associated free jazz with rage. Though I know Coltrane's later work was deeply spiritual and reflected his attempt to commune with the divine, I've always misheard something like "Om" as the pathos of "Alabama" channeled into anger. The context of race relations in late-60's America colors how I hear the intense energy music of the period. Maybe this has something to do with why free music stripped of textured overblowing never quite resonated with me. I'm thinking specifically of Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz album, which gave the movement its name. There's something so polite about that record that seems removed from how I expect free music to sound. Contrast it with Coltrane's Ascension, made with a band of similar size.

Like some late-60's jazz figures, Detroit trombonist Phil Ranelin brings a sharp political consciousness to his music. One of two obscure Phil Ranelin albums recently remixed and remastered by John McEntire and reissued by Hefty, 1974's The Time Is Now! is moodier and less groovy than Vibes from the Tribe, which came two years later. The later album built solidly on the funk/fusion innovations of Miles Davis, but this record is more varied and harder to pin down. As with Sun Ra's Arkestra, the sound of Ranelin's band expands and contracts to fit the mood of each particular piece, and the many elements at disposal (there are more than ten instruments on this album, and just about everybody contributes some percussion) make such a range possible.

Ranelin doesn't ever commit fully to free jazz here, but the many-tendriled opener, "The Time Is Now for a Change," comes pretty close. The feel of the piece is somewhere between early 60's Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra's "Atlantis." The repeating bass and keyboard anchors drops the hint that this is post-Bitches Brew jazz, but the chaotic rhythm (one drummer in each channel, just like Coleman's Free Jazz) is indebted to the time-warping technique of Sonny Murray, and the theme is irregular and difficult to grasp. Dissonant as it is, "The Time Is Now for a Change" doesn't suggest rage, exactly, though as an African-American activist in early-70's Detroit, Ranelin had plenty to be upset about. The mood is plaintive and considered, seemingly more concerned with questions than answers.

Indicative of the emotional whiplash, directly after the loud and unsettling "The Time Is Now for a Change" comes the ethereal "Time Is Running Out," a beautiful piece with cascading electric piano and oceans of space, very reminiscent of something from Miles' Nefertiti. Ranelin's painterly way with arrangement foregrounds tonal color and uses melody or rhythm for shading. "Of Times Gone By" is jubilant, uptempo hard bop that feels like a celebration, with Ranelin's booming, melodic trombone setting the tone from the outset. "Black Destiny" is fueled by a funky piano comp inspired by Takin' Off-era Herbie Hancock, but with loose, chaotic blowing standing in for Hancock's elegant themes.

Reaching back furthest into the tradition, "13th and Senate" is a blues dirge, with a trombone, saxophone and flugelhorn swirling in rich New Orleans harmony. "He the One We All Knew, Pt. 1" is a fragment of a longer tribute to John Coltrane that eventually appeared in much different form on Vibes from the Tribe. It's interesting to hear a Coltrane tribute so heavy on the brass (trombone, trumpet, flugelhorn), considering that Coltrane worked almost exclusively with reeds in the 60's. But the influence is apparent in the long, circular melody lines, and it makes for a moving tribute.

Though The Time Is Now! isn't quite as distinctive as Vibes from the Tribe, praise is due to Hefty for making Phil Ranelin's music available again. There is much wisdom behind a Chicago label like Hefty making music relevant to the current scene available for all to hear and understand. Go forth now, ye post-rock hordes, and may your jazz collections multiply.

-Mark Richard-San