“Political Rap” from Grex?

According to my archives, it has been about half a decade since I last wrote about the Grex trio, led by guitarist Karl Evangelista performing with Rei Scampavia on keyboards and Robert Lopez on drums. This coming Thursday will see the release of their latest album, Auntie + Tebs; and, as is often the case, Bandcamp has already created a Web page for taking pre-orders. The trio is joined by a “front line” with saxophonist Zoh Amba, Bobby Bradford on cornet, and cellist Misha Khalikulov. Bassist D. Chavez adds to the rhythm section.

Auntie + Tebs marks a shift from avant-garde jazz, inspired by performers from the last quarter of the last century, to rap, composed and delivered by both Evangelista and Scampavia. The title is political, providing the basis for the rap content. “Auntie” is the Filipino politician Miriam Defensor Santiago, whose presidential election was undermined by “powers that be” before she could take office. “Tebs” is the South African drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo, who composed his music for the sake of anti-Apartheid activism.

I have to say that, in the context of the wild instrumentation, following the rap delivery was not always easy; but my other disclaimer is that I have never been much of a fan of rap in the first place! The good news is that the full instrumentation is rich and definitely speaks for itself. As a result, there was more than enough to hold my attention over the course of twelve tracks occupying about 50 minutes.

Cover of the album begin discussed (from its Bandcamp Web page)

Nevertheless, it is clear that Evangelista’s past influences, which include Don Cherry, Alice Coltrane, and Andrew Cyrille, now seem to have taken a “back seat” to a more aggressive approach to performance! The design of the album jacket should be enough to prepare the attentive listener for that approach. That said, I am more than willing to take that approach on its own terms.