Jazz
Mubuntusic Records · 31 July 2026
“Yemoja (Water Spirit Meditation)” (5:01) opens the album with the name of the Yoruba water orisha and with the Rhodes out in front of the acoustic piano, and that choice sets up everything after it: Falling to Rise Again is James Gordon Williams’ first record as a leader since Unrepeatable Life (2004), and the sound he comes back with is not the piano trio you might have assumed.
The band explains why. Terri Lyne Carrington plays drums and shares the production credit, Matthew Stevens is on guitar and Morgan Guerin covers both double bass and tenor saxophone (the same musician, both jobs), with Daniel Sadownick on percussion. It was cut in two days, 2 and 3 January 2024, at Wellspring Sound in Acton, Massachusetts. Williams, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the author of Crossing Bar Lines: The Politics and Practices of Black Musical Space, wrote all eight pieces.
“Turning the Tide” (7:15) is the long one and gives Stevens the most ground; “Cuse Cue Blues” (5:58) is the only piece that plants itself on a recognisable blues form; “Incurable Romantic” (6:29) and “Philadelphia Morning” (5:31) are where the acoustic piano is left most alone. “Sebastian” (2:54) closes, and does not reach half the length of anything else.
That ending is also the record’s reservation. Seven of the eight pieces move between 5:01 and 7:15 and all carry the same gait, so “Sebastian” arrives as a note rather than a close. And there is the calendar: two days in January 2024 released on 31 July 2026, two and a half years in the drawer during which this palette (Carrington’s drums, Stevens’ guitar, Guerin’s low end) has turned up on half a dozen other records. What is Williams’ own here, which is how he resolves the ends of his phrases, is worth digging for; what is the band’s no longer surprises.
Rating: 7.2/10
Text by Aina Torrents