For listeners drawn to the visceral intensity of rock and the expressive freedom of jazz, the combination of the two styles often produces a watered-down brew that does not do justice to either tradition. But for the master percussionist-composer Ronald Shannon Jackson, there are no clichés, no compromises. As a result, Red Warrior, Jackson's latest cross-cultural outing with producer Bill...

Man Dance is not an album one would have expected from a musician associated with such avant avatars as Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman. Rather than make a record that aspires to the inventive freedom of his former employers, drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson has put together an LP that stands as a collective statement. Above all, the Decoding Society is a band, not a group of dueling virtuosos....