Terence Blanchard, the superb New Orleans-raised jazz trumpeter and film composer, gave this album its title as a reminder of the last words of black New Yorker Eric Garner (“I can’t breathe”) in an NYPD officer’s chokehold. Blanchard produces consistently diverse contemporary jazz, but also addresses wider issues, sometimes via spoken addresses on civil rights and justice. He aims to do both on this upbeat groove and funk set, and it works a charm on the old Les McCann/Eddie Harris vehicle Compared to What, with rapturous flares of trumpet improv soaring off PJ Morton’s Stevie Wonderish vocal tones and Oscar Seaton’s backbeat. A soul interpretation of Hank Williams’ I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But Time also testifies to the leader’s subtle taste, but an account of Coldplay’s Midnight veers toward the wallpapery. It’s an uneven set, and maybe too generically funky for some jazzers, but certainly has its thrilling moments.
