Deron Johnson has played keyboards for a lot of big names—Paula Abdul, Alanis Morrissette, and Miles Davis, and Seal, among others—and has composed music for films, television, and podcasts over the last decade. “Free to Dance,” his new solo album on Colorfield Records, is true to its title: Johnson gets to play and experiment and bring in cool guests to realize his vision. “Free to Dance,” like many Colorfield releases, is a slantwise jazz record, with both traditional combo playing and detours into sections of pure synth, or post-rock, or straight up pop songs. Johnson is really showing his firepower on this album, often switching intra-song between genres but still making it all sound coherent and natural.
“Robot Bebop” is a perfect example of what Johnson’s capable of. It starts off with big synth sounds, a deep wobbling one, and then another, string-imitating synth, cutting against that first one. Several layers of programmed percussion. Right around 1:30, there’s a huge shift, like changing gears: sounds get bigger, brighter, the synths are writing in neon. Then for the last minute, another big shift: there’s a wild beat and then the song follows that with synthesized sax sounds and a haunting sort of vocal-Mellotron sound.
The next song on the album is also great: “Can A Song Save Your Life.” I love the vibe of this one, especially with the vocals from Gretchen Parlato. This song has such a rich, vibrant feel, like a luxurious pop song from the 80s that you find out was recorded for like $1 million in studio time and sounds that good too. Really cool (prepared?) piano playing on this one by Johnson—it all works together so well.
“Santur,” one of my favorite tracks on the album, is packed full of invention too. This one starts with beautiful phrases on what sounds like a hammered dulcimer (or maybe a plucked/prepared piano?), with swarming percussion, and rising horns. Around 1:20, the track changes a little, with some wilder playing on the piano and some delayed treatment of synth (or the horns), and then more straightforward playing from the horns (credited to CJ Camerieri, who’s playing flugelhorn and piccolo trumpet on this track). It’s a striking track—Johnson’s piano playing, in combination with the horns and the percussion, give “Santur” such a strong feeling of longing and uncertainty.
Johnson’s “Free to Dance” reminds me in some ways of another great Colorfield release, Anthony Wilson’s “Collodion.” Johnson, like Wilson, is a longtime pro at what he does, and with “Free to Dance,” it seems like he got to apply his aesthetic to a number of different forms, to play and experiment to see what would happen. The resulting records feel so alive because of that philosophy, and “Free to Dance” is a thrilling listen.