Lion Dance, Dan Webb’s fifth album, is a bold, psychedelic jazz-rock fusion record that finds its philosophical centre in the Taoist and Buddhist concept of death and rebirth – a framework Webb embraced as a metaphor for his relocation from Australia to Singapore in 2023, reinforced by a visit to Singapore’s Haw Par Villa, an open-air theme park of vivid, often visceral scenes from Chinese mythology, including the Ten Courts of Hell.
This is the sound of an artist who left everything familiar behind, and came back with the most ambitious record of his career. It is also his most internationally collaborative – assembling a remarkable lineup of top tier session musicians including drummer Michael Bland (Prince and the New Power Generation), bassist Tim Lefebvre (David Bowie’s Blackstar), drummer Clive Deamer (Radiohead, Portishead), keyboardist Dennis Hamm (Thundercat), percussionist Nate Werth (Snarky Puppy, Ghost-Note), and horn players Ron Blake and James King, whose credits include The Rolling Stones’ Hackney Diamonds and Foreign Tongues. It marks a telling step forward from Sunshine/Dialogue, Webb’s critically acclaimed 2023 album for which he interviewed Grammy Award winners. Here, he collaborates with them.