Album Review: Cassowary - Cassowary

Cassowary are a species of large ratites, or fighting birds, native to the deep forests of Papua New Guinea, northeastern Australia, and various small islands throughout the South Pacific region. They feed mostly on fruit, grass, and fungi, but as omnivores, they will occasionally eat smaller animals and insects. The turkey-sized animals, while generally shy, do have dagger-like toe claws and can be extremely dangerous when provoked. It is generally advisable to avoid confronting Cassowary when encountering them in the wild as they can….

*checks notes*

*shuffles papers*

*audible sigh*

*frantic shuffling*

*throat clearing noise*

Cassowary is the new jazz-funk project from LA saxophonist Miles Shannon. Shannon picked up the sax in order to walk in the footsteps of Miles Davis after being bit by the jazz fly in his teens. Learning that Davis actually played the trumpet did not deter him from mastering the instrument though, learning how to manipulate and speak through it under the tutelage of Walter Smith III in high school. Shannon spent some time on the jazz circuit in New York but quickly returned home after feeling that he had learned all he could from the maverick gods who populate the east coast. Back in LA, he was able to reconnect with his childhood friend Thebe Kgositsile, aka Earl Sweatshirt, one of the break-out stars of the infamous Odd Future rap collective. This revived friendship resulted in Shannon providing live backing instrumentation for Kgositsile’s critically acclaimed I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside. Observing Kgositsile writing and crafting an album caused the gears to turn in Shannon’s own mind and led him to begin working to translate his talent into a concise artistic statement. Five years later, we finally get to hear the album whose seeds were planted by friendship and watered ambition. 

Cassowary borrows more from the freely perspiring rock sensibilities of funk freaks like Thunder Cat than the controlled existential scholasticism of Miles Davis, but still retains the meticulous concern for structure, characteristic of many modern works of jazz that must live in the shadow of the giants of the genre who arose during the previous century. This tight but ruddy formula Shannon has stirred up on his debut is an intoxicating cocktail which lends a refreshing quality of approachable refinement to the scratchy, twinkling R’nB of tracks like “Starlight” and the clean, spiritual fusion of “Moth.” Disco influences make their presence known as well, especially on the hard-funk, piano-lead bobble of “Cyclical” and the Thunder Cat-esque thump of “She Funked Me.” Shannon has not forgotten those who he owes his love of jazz to and pays this debt forward with the affinity seeking and slippery polyrhythmic, bass-and-sax helix “Roach,” a tribute to the late jazz drummer Max Roach. Cassowary an impressive debut from a young player, securely stretching his compositional skills in riveting and revealing ways.

Grab a copy of Cassowary from Fat Possum here.