Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson is one of the truly gifted young artists in modern music and his presence is the force that truly drives this fantastic collection into the creative stratosphere. As the main creative force behind The Roots earthy, groove-oriented funk rap and the purveyor of the organic, beautiful sounds that anchor recent works by D'Angelo and rapper Common, his drumming and production skills are approaching legendary status and with good reason, the funk/jazz stylings of this great LP (the title cut and great original composition "Grover") are a fine, if somewhat limited example of his skills. Assisted ably by bassist Christian McBride and keyboard whiz Uri Caine, Thompson lays down fat bottomed grooves and alternates between good, solid rhythm playing and skittering, herky-jerky adventurous experimenting always leaving the listener short of breath! While a few of these numbers veer dangerously close to funky background music, the album, on the whole is quite satifying and doesn't embarrass any of it's participants. A worthwhile experiment that sounds quite promising and makes one hopeful for further explorations next time around.
