By Bill Meredith
Like many albums conceived of and recorded during the COVID-19 lockdown, drummer-composer Kendrick Scott’s
Corridors is imbued with the subject of loss. Yet the Houston-born bandleader also decided to employ the subject literally, losing the piano and guitar chairs from his lauded quintet Oracle to create both tension and space in a sparse trio setting with saxophonist Walter Smith III and bassist Reuben Rogers. And the results often prove that less can be more.
The album’s song titles also often hint at the uncertainty of the pandemic. On the opening “What Day Is It?” Rogers’ warm acoustic bass tones provide a calming influence amid Smith’s darting tenor excursions and percolations by Scott that echo the late Tony Williams. The Virgin Islands-born bassist’s evocative, unaccompanied intro to the album’s title track sets the tone for forthcoming passages by Smith and Scott — Berklee College of Music-trained kindred spirits from Houston — that alternate between calm and frenetic. On the lush “A Voice Through the Door,” Smith’s saxophone whispers, Scott’s cymbal brushwork shimmers, and Rogers becomes the primary instrumental voice during a banner middle solo.
Smith’s multiple overdubbed lines are a thing of beauty on the brief “One Door Closes,” to which Rogers answers with his own showcase, “Another Opens.” In between, Scott takes a detour from his own compositions with an evocative cover of vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson’s “Isn’t This My Sound Around Me?” on which Smith displays the influence of the recently departed Wayne Shorter. The theme continues on the forlorn ballad “One Door Closes, Another Opens,” Scott’s eulogy to those lost to the pandemic, which also features his chanted vocals in the background. On his closing “Threshold,” the drummer’s fiery intro, Rogers’ middle break and Smith’s impassioned lines point toward hope for a departure into a more certain future.
https://open.spotify.com/album/378aEOqUQ1caegAwHxlyuv?si=wb0HN3sjRCuoMmPZ7cv8QQ
