Devin Gray & Gerald Cleaver – 27 Licks (Rataplan Records, 2020)
May 15, 2021Notwithstanding a drum duet, 27 licks is all about motivic and thematic movement, despite no melodic instrument is involved. Well, not exactly no melodic instrument involved, as both Devin Gray and Gerald Cleaver manipulate their drum kit to create flowing melodies, sometimes clearly hearable and distinct, or rather implicit, otherworldly and almost perceptible. That’s an array of subleties, a meeting of uncoscious depths that has been honed through the multiple years of mentorhip and complicity between the two, rendered through deceiving elegance and swift interplay
