On his fourth full-length, 2021's genre-melding
Bring Backs, British pianist and rapper
Alfa Mist showcases his vivid, enveloping mix of jazz, R&B, classical, and hip-hop. The album follows 2019's Structuralism, which appeared on
Mist's own Sekito label. For
Bring Backs,
Mist moved to the Anti- label, a shift that finds him further expanding his evocative brand of organic, hip-hop jazz. A largely self-taught pianist, the East London-reared
Mist plays in a laid-back, harmonically nuanced style informed by '70s jazz and fusion, '90s hip-hop, and modern electronic production.
Mist brings this cross-pollinated aesthetic to
Bring Backs, crafting tracks that feel inspired by vintage
Lonnie Liston-Smith or
George Duke recordings, but with a keen, contemporary ear. Helping him achieve this vibrant, earthy sound are his bandmates, including Jamie Leeming (guitar), Kaya Thomas-Dyke (bass and vocals),
Jamie Houghton (drums), and Johnny Woodham (trumpet). The opening "Teki" is a languid fusion number built around a sparkling guitar arpeggio that Leeming expands with a knotty,
Pat Metheny-esque solo. Equally compelling is "Run Outs," a dreamy, trap beat groover punctuated by
Mist's astral keyboard flourishes and space alien sax and trumpet lines. No less expansive is the otherworldly "Mind the Gap," a woozy slow-jam rap duet between
Mist and
Lex Amor that brings to mind '90s, "Rebirth of the Slick"-era
Digable Planets. More grounded is "People," a lyrical and folky R&B ballad in which Thomas-Dyke's yearning vocals are framed by woody guitar, percussion, and orchestral accents. Strings, flutes, and other classical sounds pop-up throughout the album, as on "Last Card (Bumper Cars)," a lush, midtempo number whose reedy, trumpet and sax harmonies recall
Gil Evans' work with
Miles Davis.
Mist's classical inclinations take full form on "Once a Year," a brief, yet languorous chamber piece that, as with all of
Bring Backs, underlines his wide-ranging taste. ~ Matt Collar