AMG Review of Long Time Band

Alex Henderson
All Music Guide

"Multicultural" is a word that musicians tossed around a lot in the 1990s, but claiming to have a multicultural outlook and actually showing that you have one are two different things. With The Long Time Band, Andy Narell provides an example of honest-to-God multiculturalism. Think about it: you've got a Jewish-American musician who is using an Afro-Caribbean instrument from Trinidad (the steel pan) to play a style of music that came out of the African-American community (jazz). But, as The Long Time Band demonstrates, jazz is hardly the only form of music that interests Narell. Though this is essentially a jazz CD, it's a jazz CD that contains elements of other African-American forms (funk, R&B, and blues) and also draws on everything from Afro-Cuban salsa and Afro-Caribbean calypso to African pop. Narell doesn't play "in the tradition" on this album. Rather, The Long Time Band is an example of a jazzman being fascinated with a variety of cultures and using that fascination to his creative advantage. The Long Time Band is multiculturalism in the finest sense of the word.