Tommaso Cappellato, "Abstract Travels" (Mother Tongue)

I have a lot of time for solo recordings made by drummers (hello, Buddy Miles, Cozy Powell, Bev Bevan, Kid Millions, etc.)—especially if they have fascinating pedigrees like Italian percussionist Tommaso Cappellato does. Cappellato has worked with Italian minimalist-techno genius Donato Dozzy, Egyptian producer Maurice Louca, and experimental-techno artist Rabih Beaini, among others. His latest album, Butterflying, abounds with intriguing atmospheres, jazz-fusion tensions, luscious trip-hop funkiness, and some of the most piquant drum sounds of 2019.

"Abstract Travels" is not only one of the dopest tracks on Butterflying, it also serves as something of a guiding principle for Cappellato's musical ethos. Even the title flings one back to that mid-'90s moment when anything released by the Mo Wax or Ninja Tune labels was guaranteed to make your entire being feel magnificently blunted, as jazz and funk elements conjugated in unusual contortions.

"Abstract Travels" carries a whiff of Sun Ra's bizarrely timbred sonic vocabulary (think Lanquidity) and the fractured funk of Miles Davis's On the Corner, although not as frenetic. (Cappellato honed his jazz drumming techniques in New York City and worked with Senegalese musicians in his spiritual-jazz group Astral Travels, so the unusual blend of influences on Butterflying makes sense.) I rarely hear beats as earthy and strange as these, and the delayed and whooshing keyboards and wisps of flute intensify the track's mysterious ethereality. Seriously druggy business going on here.

Tommaso Cappellato performs Wednesday, October 23 at the Royal Room with Carlos Overall Quartet + friends.