Steve Reid has drummed with jazz and funk legends including Miles Davis, James Brown, John Coltrane, Sun Ra and Fela Kuti, and more recently he and Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden have collaborated on several cutting-edge drum and electronics experiments. This sextet includes Hebden, and the ensemble plays nuanced Afro-jazz bursting with passion and joy.

Steve Reid has had a long and varied career, from his early days working under the direction of Quincy Jones as the house drummer at the Apollo Theater, to sitting in with greats like Fela Kuti, Sun Ra, and Miles Davis. For the last few years, Reid has been living in Europe and has become musical partners with Kieran Hebden (a/k/a Four Tet). Following recent releases on Soul Jazz and Domino, Reid journeys to Senegal to direct an ensemble of players that includes Hebden handling electronics and sitting in the producer chair, along with African musicians playing kora, percussion, keyboards, guitar, bass, and trumpet. Much of the record successfully merges African rhythms with locked grooves and subtle yet effective digital accents. Moments feel like Miles Davis circa In a Silent Way, and that's not a bad thing. Daxaar is an enjoyable slice of modern jazz that never goes too far out, the record maintaining a solid groove and flow -- fusion without sounding dated. If you've been enjoying the great Philip Cohran reissues, here's your chance to step into something contemporary. [DG] (February 13, 2008)