Three partly related themes this month: the squirts of album releases from busy record labels; the number of albums recorded live at famous venues; and the tributes being paid to the music of others, a province long dominated commercially and perfected to sometimes ludicrous extent by the pop/rock fraternity.
Doing the rounds of UK clubs are, among others, a Ray Charles tribute by Mancunian singer-pianist Jeremy Sassoon; a presentation by Bristol trombonist Joe Bradford marking the 100th birthday anniversary of J. J. Johnson; a Miles Davis Kind Of Blue tribute by trumpeter Jay Phelps and his quintet; and a South Wales nod towards Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald by Swansea’s versatile Dave Cottle and singer Sarah Meek.
Anyone wanting to devise a tribute before they decide on a name and make an application to their respective Arts Council for a touring grant should obtain a copy of Ken Vail’s Jazz Milestones, a pictorial chronicle of jazz from 1900 to 1990 and as crammed with written information as it is with illustrations. Every year is prefaced by prominent births and deaths. For a possible 100th anniversary tribute, next year offers Oscar Peterson, Mel Tormé, Jimmy Smith, and Kathy Stobart. If more time’s needed, there’s always 1926: Blossom Dearie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Stan Tracey.
Geoffrey Keezer: Live At Birdland (MarKeez Records MKR003)
One of the latest “Live at” recordings features pianist-composer Keezer with bassist John Patitucci and drummer Clarence Penn in a stint at the Birdland Theatre where the trio was recorded in September 2023. Patitucci’s inclusion is a reminder that he was a member of bands led by Chick Corea and Wayne Shorter, both of whom have been major influences on Keezer. Charts by both are included.
Keezer describes Penn as “orchestral”, an adjective easily applied to Keezer himself. His tank is full of tigerish fuel. Sinewy, energetic, deep-delving and almost symphonic in approach, Keezer treats these eight charts – only one under seven minutes and two over 10 – as broad canvases that not only turn the trio into something far greater than just three nominal voices but also invite bassist and drummer to fill more than their conventional roles, their contributions ending up as structural rather than diverting. This is big, fully-integrated sound, fired by Keezer’s comprehensive keyboard know-how. It ranges from the sometimes impressionistic in Wayne Shorter’s Flagships to the melodically and harmonically intricate in Keezer’s own Song Of The Canopy, written in 1993 when he was a member of Art Farmer’s band.
Keezer’s all embracing approach nevertheless incorporates a playfulness that lightens moods, a quality no better illustrated than in Shorter’s Joy Ryder, a quirkily angular chart whose jagged shape owes as much to Penn’s insistent drum patterns as to Keezer’s sforzando stops and Patitucci’s beefy galvanising. It all ends as job well done.
Nexus: Nexus Plays Dolphy (Red Records RR 123345-2)
A new album by the Italian septet Nexus illustrates two of the topics mentioned above: the modest gush of new releases from a single label (the Milan-based Red Records, the other two issues being by the Fred Hersch Trio and a Gato Barbieri quartet) and jazz musicians paying homage.
Nexus is led by tenor saxophonist Daniele Cavallanti and drummer Tiziano Tononi, who share arrangements. The band, or Cavallanti and Tononi separately, have made a light industry of formal acclamation, with tributes to Ayler, Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Mingus, Roland Kirk and others less celebrated. Like the best of jazz’s acts of homage, the Italians evoke rather than copy, imitate, or emulate, though their collaborative tendencies are reflected in Dolphy’s 245, the number of the Brooklyn address in the basement of which the saxophonist and like minds rehearsed and jammed. It’s one of two charts – Jitterbug Waltz being the other – timed, like the two on the Keezer album, at over 10 minutes.
There’s merit in recognising the achievements of Dolphy, who died at 36, not least as Nexus’s personnel here comprises, as well as the leaders, Achille Succi on alto sax and clarinets, Emanuele Parrini (violin), Allessandro Castelli (trombone), Luca Gusella (echoing, on vibes, Bobby Hutcherson), and Andrea Grossi (bass). It’s a lively, self-assured combo that more than hints at what might have been had Dolphy lived and progressed. The band’s composition rather than its numerical strength does make for some heavy ensemble texture, albeit relieved by conventional strings of solos. Dolphy would have approved of Grossi’s frenzied arco bass intro to Serene, on which vibes and then trombone descend, poultice-like, to relieve the stress before we get to Succi on Dolphyesque bass clarinet. Jitterbug Waltz is big-hearted, hauling itself as a heavyweight into view before tripping three-to-the-bar.
Gato Barbieri: Standards Lost And Found 1 (Red Records RR123347-2)
Standards Lost And Found 1 is a timely Red Records tribute to the Argentine saxophonist and a revival of the quartet sides he cut in 1968 in Rome.
It’s also an achievement for the remastering skills of Rinaldo Donati at Milan’s Maxine Studio, though Barbieri’s blistering intensity even on numbers such as Strayhorn’s Lush Life and Romberg’s Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise had sufficient presence to cut through any depredation of time. Charts by those two and by Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock are bookended with two by, respectively, bassist Giovanni Tommaso and pianist Franco D’Andrea. So What is transformed to accommodate a quartet arrangement and Barbieri’s raucous, sometimes wildly stratospheric take, and there’s no saxophone let up on All Blues or Maiden Voyage. An element of exasperation characterised Barbieri’s inflammatory style, unintended or not, which possibly militated against cool modality, not to mention against the claims to notice of other band members; but he was exciting and spontaneous. Lush Life was all about self-restraint.
That third Red Records album released at the same time as the foregoing was ETC by the Fred Hersch Trio (RR123233-2). But that’s been reviewed elsewhere in JJ. Red Records was founded in 1976 and is one of the European independents, along with ECM, Enja, Criss Cross and others, that mirrored Commodore, Verve, Prestige and Blue Note before those Americans were taken over by multinationals.
