By: David Schultz
Photo of Jamaaladeen Tacuma by Greg Aiello

In the series of shows that comprised the eulogy for New York City’s Tonic, drummer G. Calvin Weston invited guitarist Vernon Reid and bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma to join him for his farewell set at the soon-to-closing nightclub. With no time for rehearsals, the three embodied Tonic’s experimental ethic and turned out an improvised set that teemed with spontaneous energy. After reprising the endeavor in Philadelphia, Reid booked some studio time in Staten Island and the resulting urban mythology volume one captures what was only their third performance together.

Banding together as the Free Form Funky Freqs, Reid, Tacuma and Weston turn the idea of a power trio on its head. Instead of heavy blues based riffs featuring a thumping bass and rafter-shattering drums, the FFFF finesse the concept. The aptly named band – the music is as free in form as it is funky – celebrated the release of urban mythology with a Friday night show at Joe’s Pub, a cabaret-style venue that made an unlikely locale for the onslaught unleashed by the Freqs.

The fun of urban mythology is listening to how the three parts intersect into a satisfying and intriguing whole. When not taking in the entire collage, you can direct your attention to Reid playing his most inspired guitar in some time, marvel at Tacuma’s intricate bass lines or track the path of Weston’s dense and angular drum beats. The same formula proved captivating on stage as well . . . and louder, much much louder.

From the ease of their interaction, you would scarcely believe that Friday night’s performance was just their 23rd as a unit. Even if they haven’t played together, Reid, Tacuma and Weston have traveled in the same circles for many years. Both Tacuma and Weston both played with Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time and the three all have a common friend in James “Blood” Ulmer. They have sensitive ears for where they are taking the music and have developed a cohesiveness that usually takes years to develop.

Tacuma is simply a force of nature: his bass, a world unto itself and anyone taking the stage with Tacuma risks being pushed aside by the tempest created by his soulful, powerful and often complicated playing. In Reid and Weston, Tacuma has his equals. Responsible for the some of the more identifiable riffs of the late 80s and early 90s, Reid played relatively little traditional classic rock guitar. Rather, he incisively found spaces in the rhythm and filled them with jazzy licks and distorted guitars. It was loud and different in nature from his work with Living Colour and Masque but it was also precise and perfectly in tune with what Weston and Tacuma were laying down.

Reid has said that when a band stays out of the way of the music, good things are going to happen. For a little more than an hour, the Freqs did just that, giving the music free reign by eschewing conventional song structure and creating their own style of avant-garde free form heavy jazz. It was as fun to listen to as it was to watch and Reid, Tacuma and Weston are a supergroup in every sense of the word. After the show, Reid idly mused about a second album as their 100th performance. Hopefully, their schedules permit that to happen very soon.