Mike Kirkpatrick and The Drovers Unlimited Orchestra – ‘The Drovers Unlimited Orchestra, Vol. 3’ [Album Review]

The Drovers Unlimited Orchestra, Vol. 3, the second and final, posthumous album from Chicago-based musician, composer, and producer Mike Kirkpatrick’s triptych, amalgamates jazz, world music, and Celtic tangs into an innovative and uniquely interconnected soundscape.

During the ’80s and ’90s, Kirkpatrick played with The Drovers, an Irish folk-punk-indie-rock band, a band whose sound didn’t fit neatly into a single category because of their blend of roots punk, Irish folk music, and rebellious excitement.

Kirkpatrick was adept at everything, including teaching at the Old Town School of Folk Music, and Columbia College Chicago, where he instilled his unbridled enthusiasm to musicians.

Drovers Unlimited Orchestra, Vol. 3, features a who’s who of talent: Dave Liebman, a renowned saxophonist who played with Miles Davis; percussionist Billy Hart, who worked with Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, and Stan Getz; Eddie Henderson, a jazz trumpeter known for his work with Hancock; and Kevin Burke, the renowned fiddler of Irish music.

Encompassing 10 tracks, Vol. 3 opens with “The Hidden Track,” a reimagining of a track from The Drovers’ LP, Little High Sky Show, engineered by Steve Albini. Rolling out on a prog-rock-like intro that quickly takes on Celtic flavors, the song provides the perfect preface to Kirkpatrick’s limitless creativity.

Entry points include the bouncy “Tomorrow Part 1,” featuring Billy Harper’s unruly saxophone, adding an anarchic feel to a delightful jazz tune brimming with complex layers exuding a tumultuous sensation.

A personal favorite because of its slow, sensuous flow and hints of Latin savors, “Girl U Know My Love is For Real” sways with tenderness and simmering passion. While “Teardrop Falls” drifts on plangent textures, dripping with bluesy colors, evoking a mood of sleepy melancholy.

Mike Kirkpatrick, photo courtesy of artist

“Tomorrow Part 2,” thick with brass textures that interweave and echo, glides over a sparkling piano, while the crisscrossing brass tones form a dreamy, and at times almost discordant overlay of gorgeous sonic pigments.

Tying the album off, “The Root, the Branch, and the Bright Morning Star” offers an elegant yet edgy improvisational melody that coasts over frenetic percussion, giving the tune two distinct dispositions: one of jagged, frantic tension, the other darker and gravitational.

Chock-full of traditional jazz as well as experimental tangs, The Drovers Unlimited Orchestra, Vol. 3 is a sublimely wonderful album.

The Drovers Unlimited Orchestra, Vol. 3 Track Listing:

1. The Hidden Track
2. Tomorrow Part 1
3. Girl U Know My Love is For Real
4. Johnny Was a Meter Mechanic
5. Teardrop Falls
6. Two Slides
7. Moon Fever
8. Tomorrow Part 2
9. 138 W 19
10. The Root, the Branch, and the Bright Morning Star

Run Time: 38:09
Release Date: March 14, 2025
Record Label: Independent