Bill Shoemaker
Point of Departure
"...Nicole Mitchell is fast becoming a leading exponent of what could be called AACM populism. As is the case with her Black Earth Ensemble, the flutist’s work with Indigo Trio more often evokes the ethnocentricity of Yusel Lateef and the blues and playfulness of Rahsaan Roland Kirk than the formalist frontiers of Eric Dolphy. Buoyed by Bankhead’s ebullient lines and strummed chords and Drake’s deep grooves, Mitchell plays with an old school soul that is now too infrequently heard. There’s an initially strange time-capsule quality to her message songs like her “Stand Strong,” which one can easily imagine Andy Bey singing with Gary Bartz’s Ntu Troop. However, this does not preclude Mitchell from playing serpentine lines with an amazing velocity and precision on collectively crafted pieces like “Velvet Lounge Bounce.” It’s particularly intriguing to hear this album in tandem with Mitchell’s more envelope-pushing work with Frequency, whose eponymous Thrill Jockey album was arguably the best debut CD of 2006. Something similar will most likely be repeatedly said at the end of ’07 about Live In Montreal."