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Jeff Lederer: Guilty?!?!?!

By Mark Corroto
September 23, 2024
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Note to conservative Republicans: stop reading this review now. Note to self: There cannot be but a handful of folks who are both MAGA and jazz and improvised music listeners.

Jeff Lederer

woodwinds

" data-original-title="" title="">Jeff Lederer's Guilty!!! recalls a time when jazz was at the forefront of the zeitgeist. Max Roach,

John Coltrane

saxophone
1926 - 1967

" data-original-title="" title="">John Coltrane, and

Charles Mingus

bass, acoustic
1922 - 1979

" data-original-title="" title="">Charles Mingus were creating music about and during the civil rights movement. Elsewhere

" data-original-title="" title="">Neil Young was protesting the four dead at Kent State, while Graham Nash was recruiting demonstrators to come to the Democrats' Chicago convention to change the world.

Lederer recruits his Swing n' Dix ensemble of cornetist

Kirk Knuffke

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Kirk Knuffke, tubist

Bob Stewart

tuba
b.1945

" data-original-title="" title="">Bob Stewart and drummer

Matt Wilson

drums
b.1964

" data-original-title="" title="">Matt Wilson to invigorate the progressive cause of ending the career career of the 45th President and his MAGA cronies. He connects the dots between the racist segregation of the 1950s and Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus and today's Nazi admirers in Congress with a sampling of Mingus' "Fables For Faubus" that swings every bit as hard as the original version. Trombonist

Curtis Hasselbring

trombone

" data-original-title="" title="">Curtis Hasselbring co-wrote along with Lederer the title track which samples the words of Congressman Adam Schiff's reading Mr. Trump's 34 felony guilty verdicts. These are transcribed for the ensemble to mimic and accelerate into a fever pitch. None of the usual suspects are left out. Marjorie Taylor Green of Jewish space laser fame is skewered on "Buzzsaw" and so is expelled congressman and serial liar George Santos. "Cheapening The Process" returns to Santos' alleged drag queen career in Brazil with

Mary LaRose

vocals

" data-original-title="" title="">Mary LaRose wordlessly singing over the bossa nova groove. Senator Katie Britt's imitation of a Stepford Wife is sampled, it is her rebuttal to the 2024 State Of The Union address for "We The People" as the circus clown sounds swirl around her words.

"Buttigieg vs. Sanders" samples the 2020 debate between the two politicians with each man talking over the other. The ensuing music follows suit, eschewing call-and-response for a comparable weave of instrumentation. Stewart mimics Mr Trump's speech patterns on "Deportation Operation" as the ensemble relinquishes order for chaos. The appropriate ending track is Lederer's cover of

Albert Ayler

saxophone, tenor
1936 - 1970

" data-original-title="" title="">Albert Ayler's "Truth is Marching In." The buoyant march, chock full of hope should replace "Hail To The Chief" if as Lederer predicts, we have our first Madame President.

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Track Listing

Buzzsaw; Buttigieg Vs. Saunders; Deportation Operation; Piccolo-Buster; Guilty!!!; And She Speaks; We The People; Fables Of Faubus; Truth is Marching In.

Personnel

Jeff Lederer

woodwinds

Kirk Knuffke

trumpet

Bob Stewart

tuba

Matt Wilson

drums

Curtis Hasselbring

trombone

Mary LaRose

vocals

Additional Instrumentation

Jeff Lederer: tenor saxophone, alto saxophone, piccolo, vocals; Kirk Knuffke: cornet, slide trumpet, magic keyboard, vocals; Bob Stewart: vocals; Matt Wilson: gavel, vocals; Curtis Hasselbring �C electronics. Mary LaRose �C vocals (on 3,8)

Album information

Title: Guilty?!?!?! | Year Released: 2024 | Record Label: Little (i) Music

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