Kenny Garrett Seeds from the Underground (Mack Avenue)
By David R. Adler
Alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett took an electric turn on his 2008 Mack Avenue debut Sketches of MD, a live album that harked back to his ’80s apprenticeship with Miles Davis. He ventured further into “fusion” through 2009, touring with Chick Corea and John McLaughlin in the Five Peace Band. With Seeds from the Underground, his second Mack Avenue disc, Garrett returns the acoustic idiom of earlier outings such as Beyond the Wall (2006), Standard of Language (2003) and his revered ’90s titles Triology and Pursuance.
Pianist Benito Gonzalez from Sketches of MD stays on board, leaving the Rhodes and synthesizer behind and contributing some of the finest solos of the date. Nedelka Prescod (a.k.a. Echols), the vocalist from Beyond the Wall, returns to sing on three tracks (though her persistent doubling of the vamp melody on “Haynes Here” grows excessive). On bass is Nat Reeves, whose first appearance with the leader dates back to Introducing Kenny Garrett in 1984. On drums, from Garrett’s hometown of Detroit, is the young Ronald Bruner, a powerhouse who seizes the spotlight on the title track. Percussionist Rudy Bird gives the rhythm section a fuller, more involved sound, starting with the bright Latin-tinged opener “Boogety Boogety.”
Garrett is one of the few mainstream players who can bring the alto sax into ecstatic “Chasin’ the Trane” territory, and his recent collaborations with Pharoah Sanders have heightened this impulse all the more. It’s readily apparent on “J. Mac,” a burner with echoes of “Afro-Blue,” and “Du-Wo-Mo,” a midtempo tribute to Ellington, Monk and Woody Shaw. (Most tracks on Seeds are dedications.) “Laviso, i Bon?”, though inspired by the Gwo-ka tradition of Guadeloupe, is a modal 6/8 blues that closes the date with Gonzalez in brilliant form.
These compositions, firmly rooted in the harmonic language and tempestuous rhythm of the Coltrane-Tyner mid-’60s, have their value as blowing vehicles. But Garrett sustains greater interest with the limping asymmetric meter of “Wiggins,” or the slow and mournful minor blues of “Detroit,” which relies on sumptuous vocal harmonies and a hypnotic background of crackling vinyl, with no drums, and no solos.
Drawing on material from his superb new Palmetto disc An Attitude for Gratitude, drummer Matt Wilson fronted his Arts and Crafts quartet in an inspired late Saturday set at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola (March 3). Wilson is a funnyman in the finest Gillespie tradition, but watching him harness the talents of trumpeter Terell Stafford, organist/pianist Gary Versace and bassist Martin Wind is a vivid reminder: this is a musician of rigorous intent, full of playfulness and positive energy but also jaw-dropping skill. Stafford and Versace were hand-in-glove from the first choruses of Nat Adderley’s “Little Boy with the Sad Eyes,” an introductory blast of roadhouse organ swing, which was followed by John Scofield’s lilting calypso-ish number “You Bet.” Versace moved to acoustic piano (and Stafford to flugelhorn) for the moody Nelson Cavaquinho ballad “Beija Flor,” a nice moment for the lyrical Wind, who took the first solo. Not content with just two instruments, Versace took up accordion for “Stolen Time,” the most abstract piece of the set, but returned to piano as guest vocalist Kurt Elling began a scathing scat rendition of “Straight, No Chaser.” Midnight had come and gone, the jam session vibe fully took hold, and these players stretched the blues as far as they could. But the same spirit of creativity and effortless connection guided the rehearsed tunes as well. Ornette Coleman’s “Rejoicing” was the cherry on top, a concise and light-speed treat to close the set. (David R. Adler)
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Gearing up for a mid-April double bill at Jazz at Lincoln Center with Toshiko Akiyoshi, Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks brought spark to their weekly gig at Sofia’s Restaurant (March 5). This band’s bag is well known: readings of vintage arrangements from the ’20s through the ’40s, faithful down to the smallest period detail. The music is astounding, and when liberties are taken, Giordano will say so — once he’s done sprinting from the bass to the tuba to the bass saxophone, laying down the zingy two-beat feel that keeps the Sofia’s dance floor full. Inevitably, the Nighthawks capture that age-old tension between pop entertainment and high art, moving from the occasional light waltz or perennial such as “Cheek to Cheek” to more substantial and absorbing fare: Ellington’s “Cotton Club Stomp” and “Old Man Blues,” King Oliver’s “I Must Have It,” the Luis Russell band’s “Singing Pretty Songs,” Jimmie Lunceford’s first-ever recording “Sweet Rhythm” (1930), or John Nesbitt’s pathbreaking arrangement of “Peggy” for McKinney’s Cotton Pickers. Trumpeter Jon-Erik Kellso was the pivotal soloist, but trombonist Jim Fryer and reedists Dan Block, Dan Levinson and Mark Lopeman killed it as well. Clarinet megaphones, celeste, phono-fiddle, a 1912 euphonium, two numbers with 89-year-old guest clarinetist Sol Yaged: this was the real old-school deal, not fruitless nostalgia but genuine scholarship in sound. It’s a discipline that can’t be allowed to fade away. (DA)
I interviewed John Pizzarelli the other day, for an upcoming feature story in JazzTimes. Among other things, we talked ’70s pop — my favorite subject — and the conversation inspired me to learn Steely Dan’s “Time Out of Mind,” a longtime fave. I’ve always been obsessed with the instrumental bridge, beginning precisely two minutes in. For some reason I couldn’t rest today until I wrote it out, so here it is [click image and click again to enlarge].
Frank Wess Quintet Sat., Mar. 24, 8pm. $25. Chris’ Jazz Café, 1421 Sansom St. 215.568.3131 www.chrisjazzcafe.com
Philly saxophonists know where they’ll be this weekend: hearing 90-year-old Kansas City native Frank Wess, who made his greatest mark with Count Basie’s “New Testament” band from 1953 to 1964. With his flute — just as imposing as his tenor — Wess gave a distinctive sparkle to Neal Hefti’s classic Basie arrangements, helping to carve out a future for postwar big bands on such albums as April In Paris, Atomic Basie and Chairman of the Board. Recent collabs with Hank Jones, Paul Meyers and others show he can still invent blues-drenched melodies for miles. His A-list quintet will feature pianist George Cables, guitarist Roni Ben-Hur, bassist Santi Debriano and drummer Victor Lewis. — David R. Adler
Cyro Baptista Fri., Mar. 16, 5pm. Free with museum admission. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 26th St. & the Pkwy. 215.763.8100 www.philamuseum.org
Famed percussionist and São Paolo native Cyro Baptista might be 61 years old, but he’s got more punk energy than your average teen. Leading his flamboyant Beat the Donkey ensemble, he does more than play percussion: he summons entire musical universes, drawing on Brazilian idioms, psychedelia and modern jazz to create shows full of spectacle and abandon. He’s also worked with everyone from Yo-Yo Ma, Herbie Hancock and Paul Simon to the Chieftains and John Zorn, always managing to marry pop accessibility with avant-garde edge. He’ll hit Philly with his Banquet of the Spirits, featuring keyboardist Brian Marsella, bassist Jason Fraticelli, guitarist John Lee and drummer Tim Keiper. — David R. Adler
Gene Coleman/Joo Won Park/Evan Lipson Sun., Mar. 18, 7:30pm. $6. With Natura Morta. Highwire Gallery, 2040 Frankford Ave. 215.426.2685 www.museumfire.com/events
Originally from Chicago, Gene Coleman is now a mainstay of Philly’s experimental scene, a composer and bass clarinetist merging the worlds of chamber music, free improvisation and multimedia. His recent work, witheringly abstract and yet thoroughly engrossing, involves close study of the instruments and traditions of East Asia. His younger associate Joo Won Park comes at things from a complementary angle: through digital processing he wrings music from such objects as vegetables and umbrellas. Upright bassist Evan Lipson will give some low-end percussive oomph to this anything-can-happen encounter. Sharing the bill is Brooklyn’s Natura Morta, with violist Frantz Loriot, bassist Sean Ali and drummer Carlo Costa. — David R. Adler
If working bands are a rarity in jazz today, trumpeter Jeremy Pelt seems not to have gotten the memo. Soul is his fourth album to feature the same steady quintet lineup, with JD Allen on tenor, Danny Grissett on piano, Dwayne Burno on bass and Gerald Cleaver on drums. (The first, November, released by MaxJazz in 2008, was soon followed by the HighNote discs Men of Honor and The Talented Mr. Pelt.)
Rooted in an expansive, fiercely swinging, darkly hued sound reminiscent of Miles Davis’s mid-’60s quintet, Pelt’s group still has its own identity, and how could it not? These are leading players of our day, genuine personalities with bands of their own, and as a unit they have a way of reaching beyond themselves. Soul is their first collection devoted mainly (but not wholly) to ballads.
One could say that Soul burns at a lower temperature than Pelt’s previous efforts, but it burns nonetheless. The program, once again, is mostly original, although the quintet reworks George Cables’s “Sweet Rita Suite,” a waltz with an alluring piano/bass intro and a fine muted-trumpet turn from the leader. “Moondrift,” a lesser-known Sammy Cahn tune with a shining guest vocal by Philadelphia’s Joanna Pascale, is concise and perfectly placed, a gratifying departure.
The six remaining titles are Pelt’s, and they’re beautifully done. “Second Love,” the opener, is deeply meditative, a model of harmonic subtlety. The closing “Tonight…”, featuring Pelt in quartet mode without Allen, has a gentle but persistent rolling tempo anchored by Cleaver on mallets. While the music is horn-driven to a large extent, Grissett dominates “The Ballad of Ichabod Crane” and solos first on both “The Story” and “The Tempest,” putting the front line on notice. He’s the band’s not-so-secret weapon.
With “The Tempest” and “What’s Wrong Is Right,” Pelt stirs it up and brings Soul out of the ballad realm. The former slips between agitated 6/8 and 4/4, recalling a type of heightened rhythmic ambiguity once heard from Tony Williams. The latter is a strutting midtempo blues with no chords — Grissett doesn’t comp at all behind Pelt or Allen and then solos with his right hand exclusively. It’s an open-ended concept that harks back to Miles Smiles, and it moves the album deeper into uncharted waters.
It’s always worth noting when a respected sideman ventures out as a leader. But debuts are sink-or-swim affairs, so what of Johnathan Blake’s The Eleventh Hour? It swims, and thanks primarily to a sideman’s intimate knowledge that the right players, the right chemistry, means everything. The core band features Mark Turner on tenor and Jaleel Shaw (Blake’s fellow Philadelphian) on alto, a gripping front line. The rhythm section, with pianist Kevin Hays and bassist Ben Street, couldn’t be more seasoned. The special guests, making every moment count, are Tom Harrell, Robert Glasper, Grégoire Maret and Tim Warfield.
As the prodigious drummer in bands led by Harrell, Kenny Barron and many others, Blake has developed sharp leadership instincts. He’s also got a confident composer’s hand: seven of the 10 tracks on The Eleventh Hour are Blake originals, with a remarkable expressive range. “Rio’s Dream” and “Time to Kill” are infectiously melodic, while “Of Things to Come” is a fierce piano-less burner. “No Left Turn” alternates slow-churning swing with a flowing, enigmatic 5/4 section, pitting Turner against Warfield’s second tenor. “Clues,” a fast and funky variant of Monk’s “Evidence,” includes cage-match trading between Shaw and Turner and a brilliant acoustic-electric turn by Hays. The leadoff title track grooves patiently and mysteriously, built on Glasper’s swirling Rhodes and the timbral blend of saxes against Maret’s harmonica.
There’s no mistaking Harrell’s warm, assertive sound from the first seconds of “Blue News,” a Harrell-penned E-flat minor blues. Or Turner’s spiraling, upward-reaching lines on the intro cadenza of “Dexter’s Tune,” a well-chosen Randy Newman instrumental from the film Awakenings. Maret and Glasper return for the closer, the pianist’s own “Canvas,” which has both a melancholy air and the feel of a perfect pop hook. Turner played on the original version from Glasper’s 2005 Blue Note debut, but here it is Maret, battling the pianist in a round of trades, who stands out.
Blake’s rhythmic footprint, of course, is everywhere in this music. His playing is furious but never overpowering, always alive with inner detail, galvanizing the players in his midst. But in a set spilling over with virtuoso performances, what’s most compelling is the musical storyline and clarity of purpose, which makes The Eleventh Hour a work of spotless integrity.
When bassist Ben Allison dedicated his Zankel Hall concert (Feb. 3) to New York City as a whole, he was glancing back at all the chameleonic work he’s done in town: music that has involved top jazz improvisers as well as figures like Joey Arias, the performance artist and drag queen. Arias joined Allison’s sextet onstage, in fact, and seemed less out of place than you’d think next to guitarists Steve Cardenas and Brandon Seabrook, saxophonist Michael Blake, drummer Rudy Royston and percussionist Rogerio Boccato. Spicing up the evening with costume changes and an outrageous flair, Arias was relegated to eye candy at times, adding a bit of interpretive dance to Allison’s crushing jazz-rock encore “Man Size Safe.” But he sang with panache on Allison’s eerie new composition “DAVE” (“digital awareness vector emulator”) and joined forces with Seabrook to create wild sonic effects on “Broken.” Blake switched between tenor, soprano and clarinet and often functioned as a unit with Cardenas, doubling or harmonizing melodies while Seabrook conjured fuzztone roars (on the bright 7/8 “Platypus”) and unexpected timbres on the banjo (on “Fred”). On “Roll Credits,” the funky 5/4 opener, Allison paired the guitars for big, unison-voiced arpeggios that rang through the hall. But even when the volume was high, the orchestrations were endlessly subtle. And “Green Al,” which people went away humming, emphasized another of Allison’s best qualities: the spirit of song. (David R. Adler)
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Having placed second in the 2011 Thelonious Monk Competition, pianist Joshua White was also the second to appear in the Tribeca Performing Arts Center’s annual “Monk In Motion” finalists’ showcase (Feb. 11). Kris Bowers, the winner, had appeared two weeks prior with a sextet including guest vocalists and a strong R&B element. Emmet Cohen would follow with a quartet (featuring Brian Lynch) a week later. White, from San Diego, assembled a top-tier New York band for the occasion with saxophonist Marcus Strickland, bassist Doug Weiss and drummer Adam Cruz. Opening with a trio rendition of “Yesterdays,” he combined dense “energy” playing with fast, in-the-pocket swing of a Tyner-esque stripe. Strickland joined on tenor for the lyrical original “A Million Days,” but White again gave reign to avant-garde impulses with a solo piano reading of “Skylark” — even if his harsh clustered chords led to a tranquil melody statement in the end. There were two large-canvas medleys as well: Wayne Shorter’s “Someplace Called ‘Where’,” originally an overproduced feature for Dianne Reeves on Joy Ryder, became a scaled-down duet for piano and soprano sax, easing into a heavily reworked “Tutu.” Later, the Beatles’ “And I Love Her” segued into Coltrane’s “Mr. Syms,” with similar liberties taken. The band nailed it all. And White harnessed a wide range of sounds into something his own. He’ll integrate his influences even more effectively as he gains seasoning. (DA)
Kenny Garrett
