Superblue: The Iridescent Spree album review — an edgy mix of swing and soul

The Iridescent Spree, the second album from Charlie Hunter and Kurt Elling’s Grammy-nominated Superblue project, kicks off with an edgy mix of swing and soul and never lets up. Guitarist Hunter syncs basslines with rhythm, the pulse crackles with whiplash snare and vocalist Elling soars to the skies with Joni Mitchell’s “Black Crow”.

Later, Bob Dorough’s “Naughty Number Nine” celebrates arithmetical magic with blousy horns and Ron Sexsmith’s love song “Right About Now” eases back sensuously over sparse hip-hop shades. Tragedy is in the mix, as are desire and a celebration of place. Co-leaders Hunter and Elling pull the various strands together with a singular blend of chutzpah, technique and aesthetic design.

The body of the album combines Elling’s lyrics with sharp-edged rhythms crafted by collaborators. The vocalese, rap-smart rhymes and floaty vocal harmonies that celebrate “Freeman Square” — “a pyrotechnic kinda sheen . . . An iridescent spree” — stand on bass-driven funk conjured by producer Don Was. “Little Fairy Carpenter” comes with comforting reverb-laden guitar and the funky-drummer beat of “Bounce It”, co-written by Nate Smith, celebrates the power of the groove with tight horns and the onomatopoeic line “spit and spank, spankalank”.

Elling delivers his combination of blank verse and rhyme with joyous abandon tempered by exacting control. Twinned with Hunter’s equally idiosyncratic virtuosity on eight-string guitar, and backed by drummer Corey Fonville and keyboardist DJ Harrison, both from the band Butcher Brown, the effect is magnetic.

“Not Here/Not Now” a description of kindled desire put on hold, finds Elling sensuously skirting the funky rhythms that froth below. In contrast, righteous anger and drum’n’bass sear Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman” as lyrics relate an abused woman’s descent into homelessness.

The set closes with light-touch funk supporting Elling’s glossy reading of Billy Collins’ poem “The Afterlife”, themed on the wonderful idea that when you die, “you go to the place you always thought you would go.” Classicists get a mention, as does a forbidding judge and some references float off into a benign vagueness.

★★★★☆

‘Superblue: The Iridescent Spree’ is released by Edition Records