# CD review: Barrett Martin Group – Scattered Diamonds 2020: Live full concert video, CD cover

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2020/09/06/cd-review-barrett-martin-group-scattered-diamonds-2020-live-full-concert-video-cd-cover/
- Published: 2020-09-06T17:40:52+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Scattered Diamonds is the 9th studio album from Latin Grammy-winning percussionist,
composer, and award-winning writer Barrett Martin. This time around, Barrett has
gone through his deep catalog and picked songs that feature his collaborations with
artists from around the world. **

The diversity of the guest artists range from countries as far away as Iraq, India,
Senegal, and Ghana, and include well-known rock and jazz musicians from Seattle 
and Santa Fe. The songs are as diverse as the guests themselves and feature Barrett’s
original composing style, built around his visceral drumming and global percussion.

In spring of last year, I reviewed Songs of the Firebird, a resonant and deeply 
intriguing album that could be described in part as a jazz album made with non-jazz
musicians helping out. That record leaned in a bit of an avant-big-band direction.

This newest release from the group is even more accessible. Scattered Diamonds walks
that thin line between musical adventurousness and ear candy. Leader Martin plays
both conventional drums and tuned percussion, and that deeply musical approach to
percussion informs all of the album’s 17 tracks.

Martin wrote or co-wrote all of the pieces, and when a track features a co-credit,
the collaborative composer is also a musician on that track. So alongside the fetching
hard bop/soul jazz melodies of cuts like “Roll the Bones,” you’ll find Hindustani
vocals, Iraqi oud and more.

And if your taste in jazz ventures into the kinds of things John McLaughlin did 
with Miles (or on his own), you’re in for a treat. “Way Down” sounds like Bitches
Brew-era fusion, bent toward melody. Even Dave Carter’s trumpet work evokes thoughts
of Miles, though (happily) he plays more notes.

Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil returns for a track (“The Firebird”), and the world vibe
is emphasized not only through that oud (on “The Fountain” and “Alhambra”) but also
in Martin’s deft use of bata drums, gamelan, tambura and the like. In fact, in places
the peppy, playful “Alhambra” is reminiscent of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass(!)
And keeping that cross-genre feel going, “Firefly” is subtly, warmly reminiscent
of Pink Floyd’s “Us and Them.”

But there are nods in a classic jazz direction as well, like the delightful “Swinging’
on a Moonbeam,” with its tight-formation brass and gurgling Hammond. As the back
cover of the sleeve makes plain, each and every song has a featured player. And 
their contributions always sound and feel wholly integrated; it’s never case of 
some backing musos and a star turn.

Scattered Diamonds just might be the ideal jazz album: one that can impress lovers
of the form while drawing in those with mo particular previous affinity for jazz.
If, for example, Kamasi Washington is already on your musical radar, Barrett Martin
Group should be as well.

01. Roll The Bones
 02. Way Down 03. Swingin’ On A Moonbeam 04. Battleship Swing
05. Alhambra 06. Firefly 07. Sarasvati 08. The City Slithers 09. The Firebird 10.
Agbadza 11. Sands Of Venus 12. Jakarta By Taxi 13. The Fountain 14. Ichcha 15. There
Is A Galaxy In Your Heart 16. Play The 4th Prime 17. Blue Sunrise

**Barrett Martin – Drums, Piano, Vibes, Marimba, Percussion**
 **Lisette Garcia –
Latin Percussion** **Thione Diop – African Drums** **Evan Flory-Barnes – Upright
Bass** **Dune Butler – Upright Bass** **Andy Coe – Electric Guitar** **Ryan Burns–
Piano, Keyboards** **Dave Carter – Trumpet** **Hans Teuber – Saxophone** **Curtis
Macdonald – Saxophone**

![Barrett Martin Group - Scattered Diamonds - Amazon.com Music](https://i0.wp.com/
images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Gr3nNFLiL._SY355_.jpg?resize=566%2C566&
ssl=1)

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