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)
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
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)
Alexis Cuadrado’s Noneto Ibérico Sat., Mar. 3, 8pm. $25 ($30 day of show). Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine St. 215.925.9914 www.paintedbride.org
A Barcelona native and longtime New Yorker, bassist Alexis Cuadrado has been documenting quality work since 2001. But he outdid himself in 2011 with Noneto Ibérico, his second for the Brooklyn Jazz Underground label, bringing jazz and flamenco together in a way that was rigorous, authentic and fresh. He wrote new tunes but adhered to traditional forms such as bulerías, soleá and fandango, adding palmas (handclaps) and jaleos (hollers) for good measure. Best of all, he got a smoking nine-piece band to play it all. This week he’ll have saxophonists Jon Gordon and Loren Stillman, trombonist Alan Ferber, guitarist Brad Shepik, pianist Robert Rodriguez and other monsters in the house. — David R. Adler
Tigran Sat., Feb. 25, 8pm. $20. Chris’ Jazz Café, 1421 Sansom St. 215.568.3131 www.chrisjazzcafe.com
A native of Armenia, pianist Tigran Hamasyan has traveled far — literally and musically — in his 24 short years. Since coming to the U.S., he’s won the prestigious Monk Competition (in 2006) and drawn deserved praise for his records World Passion, New Era, Red Hail, the solo piano opus A Fable and most recently the vinyl-and-download-only EP No. 1. Tigran’s muse leads him into dark meditations but also go-for-the-throat modern jazz. He’s got a harder-rocking side as well, and a gift for bringing Armenian folk melodies into new improvised contexts. He’ll arrive in Philly with a quintet featuring saxophonist Ben Wendel and drummer Nate Wood, both of Kneebody fame. — David R. Adler
Norman David and the Eleventet Mon., Feb. 27, 7pm. $8. Plays and Players Theater, 1714 Delancey St. 215.735.0630 www.playsandplayers.org
Three things are clear from spinning At This Time, the 2011 release from Norman David’s Eleventet. One, David writes beautifully, with a unique if underexposed voice in the field of modern jazz composition. Two, David knows exactly what ensemble — a “little big band” if you will — can bring out the swing and subtlety in his music. Three, David plays fierce soprano saxophone, holding up strong next to Dick Oatts, George Garzone and other world-class figures. A Montreal native, David’s been at in the Philly area since 1989, and he’s in the midst of a residency playing album cuts and new music with a fine local lineup. — David R. Adler
Andrea Centazzo, Moon in Winter (Ictus) Peter Paulsen Quintet, Goes Without Saying… (SquarePegWorks)
By David R. Adler
These two discs are worlds apart in some ways, but there’s a link to be found in the acute, versatile trumpet of Dave Ballou. Both sessions feature a quintet: Moon In Winter, an evocative chamber-improv date from Italian-American percussionist Andrea Centazzo, is freer in concept, while Goes Without Saying…, from the unheralded Pennsylvania bassist Peter Paulsen, is a darkly shaded postbop gem.
What amazes most on Moon in Winter is the panoply of sound from Centazzo’s percussion — a strategic onslaught of metal and wood, seemingly unlimited in variety. With the MalletKAT, a marimba-like MIDI controller, Centazzo builds other layers as well, at times sounding like a vibraphone, accordion, Rhodes or abstract synthesizer, bolstering the contributions of pianist Nobu Stowe and bassist Daniel Barbiero. Much of the interplay is free, but there are a number of finely composed themes, often harmonized by Ballou and woodwinds man Achille Succi, who switches between alto sax, clarinets and shakuhachi as the music demands.
The dominant focus is “Moon in Winter,” parts one through five, interspersed with three “Winter Duets” and two freestanding pieces: “The man with foggy fingers,” in a doleful rubato, and “Absolutely elsewhere,” which contrasts Succi’s feverish staccato alto with Ballou’s Kenny Wheeler-esque flight toward the end. (Regrettably, there is an obtrusive buzzing, some sort of static interference or distortion, heard throughout Moon in Winter. It was checked on multiple stereo systems, with two different copies of the disc.)
Peter Paulsen, a jazz bassist with extensive symphony experience, has three earlier releases to his credit (Three-Stranded Cord, Tri-Cycle, Change of Scenery). On Goes Without Saying… he brings seductive compositions to the table and leads a formidable band with Ballou on trumpet and flugelhorn, Chris Bacas on tenor and soprano, Mike Frank on piano and Chris Hanning on drums. Although the music is more tonal or mainstream than Centazzo’s, Ballou is consistent in personality, from his pinched half-valve entrance on Wayne Shorter’s “Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum” to his lyrical intensity on Kenny Wheeler’s “’Smatter” and Kenny Werner’s “Compensation” (all three of these cannily arranged by Paulsen).
The bass intros on “You Said You’d Call” and “Psalm” (arco and pizzicato, respectively) highlight Paulsen’s rounded tone and unerring intonation. And the leadoff title track, its bright triplet feel barely concealing a sense of inner mystery, should establish that Bacas is one of today’s great unsung voices on soprano sax. In all there are six Paulsen originals, each a model of smart orchestration and rhythmic and harmonic subtlety, marked by a truly individual touch. It’s easy to see why they inspire brilliant performances all around.
An album by the Metta Quintet always begins with a premise. The group’s 2002 debut, Going to Meet the Man, was inspired by James Baldwin’s short stories. Subway Songs (2006) evoked the bustle of New York mass transit and mourned those killed in the London tube bombings of the previous year. Big Drum/Small World continues with a statement on jazz globalism, featuring music by composers of disparate backgrounds: Marcus Strickland, Miguel Zenón, Omer Avital, Rudresh Mahanthappa and Yosvany Terry.
Drummer Hans Schuman, founder of the band’s nonprofit parent organization JazzReach, teams up with Strickland, bassist Joshua Ginsburg and two impressive newer recruits — pianist David Bryant and altoist Greg Ward — in a program that highlights the varied and distinctive voices of these guest composers. Strickland’s “From Here Onwards” leads off in a joyous and breezy mood, with saxophones in polyphony during the theme and swinging hard on the solos. Zenón’s “Sica” and Terry’s “Summer Relief” fit well together as complex, multi-themed works in a progressive Latin vein. Mahanthappa’s “Crabcakes,” introduced by Strickland and Ward in a devilish pas de deux, launches into brain-bending rhythmic repeats over fairly static harmony. Avital’s “BaKarem,” set up by Ginsberg’s passionate solo intro, brings forward the most accessible melody of the set: mournful but dancing, with a Middle Eastern tinge that prevails in much of Avital’s work.
The drawback is that Big Drum/Small World could be appropriately subtitled Short Album: it’s over in just 34 minutes. Yes, in an era of overly long CDs, concise is often a plus. But this recording feels somehow less complete, less of a journey, than the Metta Quintet’s previous two. And a quibble, perhaps, but the saxophones are overly reverbed and too severely panned (it’s especially apparent through headphones). The band sounds less live as a result. Although this is compelling music by highly gifted composers, and Metta deserves praise for bringing it to light and playing it so well, we’re left wanting more.
