NEA JAZZ MASTER: Pianist Cedar Walton

NEA JAZZ MASTER:
Pianist Cedar Walton

Ever since I first heard pianist Cedar Anthony Walton Jr's exciting composition "Mosaic," (with Art Blakey on drums, Freddy Hubbard on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on tenor, Curtis Fuller on trombone and Jymie Merritt on bass) I wanted to see him live. I discovered that Cedar Walton was taught the piano by his mother, who also turned him on to pianist Hank Jones, but he insists that he found influential pianists Art Tatum and Nat Cole on his own. Singer Etta Jones, on whose albums he has made several appearances, notably (Save Your Love For Me, 1976; Etta Jones - Timeless; Three Sundays In The Seventies: Live At The Left Bank) described Walton, "...as such a gentleman." This sealed the deal for me.

After a long wait, finally I managed to catch one of his performances at Yoshi's Jazz Club in Oakland, Saturday April 29, 2012 at 10:00 P. M. where he appeared with bassist David "Happy" Williams and drummer Willie Jones III.

Cedar Walton is a very gracious person, he is regarded as a versatile pianist with 'a funky touch and cogent melodic sense.' His life is a constant quest for excellence, no doubt fueled by discrete positive traits which have brought him recognition as a National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) Jazz Master, the nation's highest honor in jazz.

Today Cedar Walton enjoys an iconic stature in Jazz, from his peers and his many music fans. His elevation to this plateau has not come without many decades of "paying dues." In the process, he has met professional challenges, made prudent career adjustments, as music preferences, and public tastes and appetites have dictated, but he has always remained uncompromising on the core values and deep belief in himself that have shaped him from the moment he decided to go to New York in 1955, not only to get out of Texas, where he was born, but to expand his artistic consciousness, and give full vent to his prodigious creative energy.

From 1961 - 1964, Walton was a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers with tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, trumpeters Freddy Hubbard and Lee Morgan. He also led groups that included, tenor saxophonists Clifford Jordan, George Coleman, trumpeter Ralph Moore, bassist Sam Jones and drummer Billy Higgins.

During the 1970s Cedar Walton led the funk group Sound Scapes that toured the USA, Europe and Japan. The following decade, he became a member of the Timeless All Stars, which included tenor saxophonist Harold Land, vibraharpist Bobby Hutcherson, trombonist Curtis Fuller, bassist Buster Williams and drummer Billy Higgins.

Currently Walton is regarded as one of the most influential jazz pianist in the genre, to that must be added: "And one of its most gracious and respected survivors." He tours, plays his special brand of sophisticated jazz music and spreads affecting joy where ever he lends his spirit.

Drummer Willie Jones III

Drummer Willie Jones III is a world class drummer/percussionist whose playing, though impellent, is decidedly refined. His playing displays a keen sense of time, an innovative deployment of swing, with an appealing chic that eschews overplaying. His influences are Art Blakey, Philly "Joe" Jones and Billy Higgins. Jones has played with many of the top jazz personalities, most notably, vibraharpist Milt Jackson, pianist/composer/bandleader Horace Silver, trumpeters Arturo Sandoval, Roy Hargrove, tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins and singer Kurt Elling.

Bassist David "Happy" Williams

Bassist David "Happy" Williams was born in Trinidad. His father, John "Buddy" Williams who also played bass, led a very popular Calypso Orchestra in Trinidad during the 1950's and early 60's. David Williams' playing carries with it a unique melodic, lilting, bounce from his early Calypso exposure and influence that has made him an important fit in the music of 70's R&B artists Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway, trumpeter Donald Byrd, flugelhornist/composer Chuck Mangione, saxophonist George Coleman, drummers Elvin Jones, Roy Haynes, multi-instrumentalist Ornette Coleman and many, many others. Go to the link below, to hear David "Happy" Williams' father, John "Buddy" Williams' Trinidad Calypso Orchestra play their big late 1950s hit "She 'Pun Top" (This tune was a favorite dance tune for Calypso lovers in the Caribbean). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qilHUzGKFUY&feature=related
    
Cedar Walton and the trio opened the show with a swinging blues (Louis' Blues) with Walton setting a quick pace, that was picked up by bassist David Williams who gave a glimpse of this Caribbean roots by way of an early quote of Sonny Rollins' (St. Thomas) among his other "happy" moments when it looked like he might break out in a Calypso dance as he played. But it was just an inspirational lead in to "cool" world class drummer Willie Jones Jr. III who peppered the swing with sustained rhythmic elegance and drive until Walton took over and moved the groove to an end.

After the applause, Walton promised more magic, "...this time we'd like to turn to the compositional skills of the late, great Billy Strayhorn...starting with "Lush Life," continuing with "Daydream" and finally "Raincheck." "Lush Life" was painted by Walton's piano in easy swinging, straight ahead colors against engaging, bopish repeating bass patterns by Williams, that gave the tune a hip, modern feel. They then swung "Daydream" with Walton's piano mixing some Calypso-sounding riffs into the thought stream, and Williams' bass answering with quick lyrical emulations. On "Raincheck," Willie Jones III definitely made his presence felt with hints of the influence of drummer Billy Higgins. He is not outwardly ebullient or animated as Higgins, but is pacing, timing and sensitivity were not at issue. Williams has very quick hands that at times turn his drumsticks into a flitting blur. He produces an array of rhythmic patterns using his entire drum kit with a cool, appointed, surgical precision.

When Walton meandered carefully into Guy Wood and Robert Mellin's (My One And Only Love), a song that demands a slow tempo, he played with the poignant sparkle and cool appeal of Nat Cole; each note expressing lingering desire and care so convincingly that a sea arms began to drape themselves around shoulders in the room, and a beguiling far-away look descended like twilight over many an eye, as Jones' immaculate brushes added an extra layer of delicate charm to the mood, allowing Williams perfect space to lift the tune's melody out of his bass and entertain the crowd with his impeccable technique.

Walton loves to play the blues, and he always has that special, satisfying, swinging tempo, that fits perfectly, right at his fingertips, as he did on (Braymon's Blues), setting a steady hard bop pace that showed the musical thoroughbred quality of this exceptional rhythm section; and it was the perfect cue for the musical highlights of the evening's performance: (Dear Ruth), a song Walton dedicated to his mother, which Walton played with easy-swinging, melodic lyricism. Ruth must have been a caring mother; the tune embodied that feeling in the quiet pride and reserved joy heard in  Walton's playing; Williams and Jones joining him with touching sensitivity and personal interest. To savor the warmth lingering from "Dear Ruth," Walton turned to Arthur Johnson and Sam Coslow's (My Old Flame), casting the tune in a cooling glow that hard wired the trio of players and their performance in my collective consciousness as unforgettable.

The final selection of the show was a tune written by Walton and recorded at Yoshi's during one of his past visits (Iron Clad). "Iron Clad" featured some wonderful, good old-fashioned Walton piano, and turned into an iron clad case for bassist David Williams to return to his strong Caribbean roots and harvest one of his strongest bass showing of the night. He engaged Walton's piano in a note-for-note, beat-for-beat rhythmic dance driven by infectious Calypso energy and colors that Williams relished, taking his bass into a deep melodic, sweltering body-shaker.

Two of the lasting impressions of the music of Cedar Walton, are its sophistication, and the level of poise he achieves in its execution. You are never disappointed or dissatisfied with his playing. He is forever show ready! 

Lisa Marie Baratta: Summertime Jazz

Year: 2012

Style: Jazz

Label: DKS Productions

Musicians: Don Turney - piano; John Hettel - bass; Andrew Eberhard - drums (Tracks 1 - 9)
Live Recording with the CA Pops Orchestra (Tracks 10 - 11)

Review: Thelonious Monk would have loved the way multi-instrumentalist Lisa Marie Baratta plays. Monk always exhorted his musicians to "...play the melody." On Baratta's new CD: "Summertime Jazz," one of the hallmarks of her performance is her unflinching, uncompromising, beautiful playing of the melody on each selection. Immediately, this sets her apart from many instrumentalists populating the jazz genre, and imbues her music with invigorating freshness and singular modernity.

A soulful rendition of Irving Gordon's (Unforgettable) opens "Summertime Jazz." Baratta shines on alto saxophone. Her approach is nourished with a simplicity that is perfectly underscored by Don Turney's flowing, eloquent piano. Making the case that she is neither staid or bland in musical concept, Baratta alternates between alto and flute to renew Consuelo Velazquez's timeless (Besame Mucho) to a danceable bolero-flavored gem, wrapping  imaginatively designed, free-flowing colors around the body of the melody.

Pianist Don Turney

When Baratta swings (Fly Me To The Moon; Autumn Leaves), she is like a bird in flight on the flute, effortlessly negotiating a flight path that takes it through a sequence of deft maneuvers that fit seamlessly into nature's dynamic interlace and enhances its design; or she can make the alto saxophone soar like an eagle riding powerful mountain-top wind currents, as only a bird of prey is able (Summertime), carried gracefully on the wind beneath its wings; not buffeting or sporadic; but steady and sure as John  Hettel's deep, reaching, melodic bass, its meter reflected in the measured cadence of Andrew Eberhard's drums, while the breathtaking landscape beneath unfurls out of George Gershwin's classic melody. 

Bassist John Hettel

Proving that she is confident and capable in the jazz canon, she enters that of master composer Horace Silver, flute in hand, and reprises, with its original bossa nova flair, one of his most notable tunes (Song For My Father), that is easily the most emotionally charged, memorable, and melody-rich that the trio collectively performs. As far as confidence and capability go, Baratta shows both in the dark alto colors she chooses to open the Brazilian classic (Black Orpheus), she is helped considerably by Hettel's cimmerian bass figures. As a contrast, Don Turney offers a bright rhythmic Latin counter melody, followed by a funky piano solo that Baratta's soprano saxophone then matches in tone to demonstrate her stunning versatility and control on the reeds.

For couples who find Bill Withers' often requested 'wedding song' (Just The Two Of Us) irresistible, or those who still can't get the hit instrumental version by Grover Washington Jr. out of their heads, Barrata's limpid flute is sure to bring back memories of a time filled with happiness.

Drummer Andrew Eberhard

To end the date, Lisa Marie Baratta joins the CA Pops Orchestra on clarinet in a live performance of Benny Goodman's 1935 thriller (Let's Dance), she leaves no doubt about her heavyweight status in a large ensemble; that she can swing like a door; and as far as spontaneous, free-flowing improvising goes, she nailed it! Finally she featured the alto saxophone with lush symphonic accompaniment on Earl Hagen and Dick Roger 1939 jazz standard (Harlem Nocturne), painting it with attractive film-noir accents that captured the mood, mystery, atmosphere and color suggested in the song's title, to thunderous applause. 

There's undoubtably more to come from Lisa Marie Baratta in the future. But what a great jazz CD to begin "Summertime!"

Track Listing: Unforgettable; Besame Mucho; Fly Me To The Moon; Summertime; Song For My Father; When I Fall In Love; Autumn Leaves; Black Orpheus; Just The Two Of Us; Let's Dance; Harlem Nocturne. 

Produced by Don Turney
DKS Productions, Hayward, California.

http://lisamarie.baratta.com/
lisamarie@baratta.com

Gene Ess - A Thousand Summers: Featuring Vocalist Nicki Parrott

Year: 2012

Style; Jazz

Label: SIMP Records

Musicians: Gene Ess - guitar; James Weidman - piano; Thomas Kneeland - bass; Gene Jackson - drums; Nicki Parrott - vocals.

Review: Gene Ess is a virtuosic jazz guitarist who knows precisely how he wants his music to sound and feel. On his new CD Gene Ess: "A Thousand Summers," he shows that he knows exactly how to achieve what he wants. Though serendipity played a salient role in influencing a key creative decision and fostered a pivotal change in musical concept, his selection of musicians for this date tells how keenly his artistic sensibilities are tuned. Ess has drumming sensation Gene Jackson anchoring his rhythm section. The incendiary Jackson was last heard lighting up the CD New York Standards Quartet: "Unstandard," (A&R Challenge Records, 2011), alike Manhattan's magic night skyline. Also in this high-powered aggregation is bassist-to-watch, Thomson Kneeland, and exciting pianist James Weidman; all in all, a group that sounds as good, as it looks on paper.

Dwelling a little on serendipity and goal certitude, reveals how a performance by Ess at the Blue Note in NYC with a singer, triggered a shift in creative trajectory from his general penchant for featuring his instrumental compositions, to "an album from me that includes a singer" (Ess). In this case, not just any singer, but a veteran of the NYC Jazz scene; an accomplished musician who had worked with iconic guitarist Les Paul, and who also, as Ess says, "plays a mean bass and I needed a singer that can nail it in one or two takes in real time."  The featured vocalist: Nicki Parrott.

There is another side to this CD that cannot be overlooked or dismissed. The tunes selected by Ess are, in his words: "timeless and some of the most beautiful melodies I know." He has opened the songbooks of renowned writers: Rogers and Hart; Cole Porter; Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer; Gordon Jenkins; Michel Legrand and jazz composers Thelonious Monk, Nat Adderley and Joe Sample.

L - R: Thomson Kneeland - bass;
Gene Jackson - drums;
Nicki Parrott - vocal;
Gene Ess - guitar;
James Weidman - piano.

Although the music selected by Ess and his band are beautiful melodies, their arrangements are novel, challenging, and at times complex, but Ess does not lose sight of, or abandon swing; and that is how the date begins, with Rogers and Harts popular song, delightfully arranged by Thomson Kneeland (I Didn't Know What Time It Was). Ess's guitar supplies a bright rhythmic bounce that draws you in, and Kneeland gets in a solid bass solo to support Nicki Parrott's swaying vocal. Parrott sings with a Blossom Dearie-like compelling innocence, vulnerability and resignation that paint the hurt and sadness in Joe Sample's (One Day I'll Fly Away) and Thelonious Monk's (Looking Back (Reflections)) with such meaning, it's as if she had lived the words.

A definite highlight of the CD plays out in the differing arranging styles of Gene Ess and bassist Thomson Kneeland that color the music's emotional character. Each arranged five tunes. Two of Kneeland's arrangements are standouts, Cole Porter's (So In Love) and Henry Mancini/Johnny Mercer's (Charade), and seem to represent expressions of a vibrant arranging personality in the harmonies and changing tempi, with attendant complexities, quirks and changes heard in the angularity and jaggedness from Ess's guitar and Jackson's drums; but there is rationality at the core in Parrott's always clear interpretation of the lyric. Another aspect of Kneeland's arranging forte is unveiled in the way the rhythm section works together (Looking Back (Reflections)), with a brooding Ess guitar, Kneeland's slightly dark bass line, and James Weidman's searching piano; Gordon Jenkins' (Goodbye) lays itself out, lilting but sad, retrospective, resigned, entirely felt in Parrott's tender yielding to the ensemble's cool energy.

Ess's arrangements are more melodic, with space for distinct harmonies, pronounced swing and less angularity (One Day I'll Fly Away). Jazz composer Nat Adderley's (The Old Country) is usually offered as a bitter-sweet lament, but Ess shows sparkling creativity with a swinging upbeat arrangement with lots of real estate for a fine James Weidman extended piano solo, impeccable brush work from Gene Jackson, and Nicki Parrott nailing it every time, first time, as Jackson's drums and Ess's guitar engage in one of their rhythmic reminiscences that go all the way back to 1995. (All Or Nothing At All) emerges as one of Ess's most varied and complex arrangements, with its dark guitar intro that leads into a swinging Parrott vocal, driven by hard bop rhythms, punctuated by two daring, off-the-floor improvisational solos, first by Ess on guitar, and then by pianist James Weidman that morph into Ess's initial dark guitar chords to end the tune. (East Of The Sun) is organized for Ess's guitar, Weidman's piano, Kneeland's bass, Jackson's drums and Parrott's reading of the lyric to knit together some of the most bopish textures of the date.

Gene Ess ends "A Thousand Summers" with a virtuosic guitar performance (a la Julian Bream,) accompanying the sultry voice of Nicki Parrott on Michel Legrand's nostalgic and classic song from the French musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. A perfect frame for a date that contained a thousand pleasures.

Track Listing: I Didn't Know What Time It Was; One Day I'll Fly Away; So In Love; The Old Country; Charade; East Of The Sun; Looking Back (Reflections); All Or Nothing At All; Goodbye; I Will Wait For You. 

 Produced by Gene Ess

Recording Engineer: Jim Clouse
Recorded at ParkWest Studio, Brooklyn, NYC
Mixed by Jim Clouse and Gene Ess
Mastering Engineer: Gene Ess
Mastered at Garbanzo II Studio Queens, NYC

Executive Producer: Gene Ess

Album dedicated to Ryo

www.jazzgenemusic.com
email: gene@jazzgenemusic.com

SIMProductions
607 Onderdonk Avenue, Suite 1
Ridgewood, NY 11385

Kate McGarry In San Francisco

As part of the San Francisco Jazz Spring Season 2012, Kate McGarry and her band mates made an appearance at the Swedish American Hall, 2174 Market Street, San Francisco, California on April 20, 2012 for an 8:00 P. M. performance. McGarry was accompanied by Keith Gantz - guitar; Gary Verace - organ; Clarence Penn - drums & percussion.

Song Stylist Kate McGarry

Considering that the Swedish American Hall is not ideally equipped acoustically for music concerts of the type that McGarry and the band performed, the show was well attended and impressive. Judging from the reaction of the audience, who were attentive and engaged throughout the show, McGarry and her band should feel very gratified with their performance and reception. In spite of the venue's obvious shortcomings, they took the show forward as consummate professionals must.

I observed Keith Gantz on several occasions work to get the right sound and balance for his guitar, and somehow always managed  to achieve the results he wanted. Clarence Penn was the ultimate percussionist, I hesitate to say "drummer," because on this night, he astutely, nimbly, modulated his attack from cat's paw-like shimmerings of sound, to thunderous explosions of rhythm that best suited the mood and the Hall's physical features; he is a show all by himself that is pregnant with animation and glorious expressions of boundless energy. His conversations with McGarry in the jazz idiom were priceless. McGarry wonderfully controlled the energy level and direction of the evening's entertainment, completely captivating the room so disarmingly, that she admitted at one point feeling as though "...she was up here (on stage), and down there (in the crowd) with you." Gary Versace's organ enjoyed the most perfect fit of all in the Chapel-like acoustics. Overall, collective, peerless musicianship prevailed, and a performance worthy in quality, content, execution and style of any night at Carnegie Hall, or Lincoln Center overtook the Swedish American Hall in San Francisco.

Guitarist Keith Gantz

McGarry and the band performed most of the songs on their CD "Girl Talk" with the same (I'm tempted to say identical) emotional magic, conspicuous glow, deep feeling and joy stored on the CD. Starting with the Henry Mancini/Johnny Mercer evergreen "Charade," the group then swung through "I Just Found Out About Love," behind one of the night's many fine Versace organ solos. In the absence of Kurt Elling, McGarry took on "O Cantador," explaining first that it was a tune she liked singing alone, and was a song about a singer who must go to a different place each day and sing songs chosen by life, about love, joy, life and death. This set the mood for one of the tunes enthusiastically received by the audience, the lamentable "We Kiss In A Shadow."  But it was the "wrist slasher" (McGarry's term), "The Man I Love" with its roiling, tortured lyric of 'waiting' and 'longing,' and its deeply sentimental ending that seemed to get to the room at its deepest emotional level. However, McGarry's deliberate, charmingly wised up and deliciously hip rendition of the CDs title track "Girl Talk," emboldened by a great Keith Gantz guitar solo, and another Versace organ gem, really got under the skin of the audience in a way that they could easily relate.

Somehow McGarry found the energy and enthusiasm, after a gruelling cross-country flight to San Francisco, to perform such an extended program, which also included two songs sung in Portuguese. A deeply emotional song on which she was accompanied by Gantz's beautiful solo guitar. She treated the audience to "Ten Little Indians" a song she wrote about her childhood and remembrances of her parents. A folk song written by a friend who "had a decision to make," also was sung, plus one of James Taylor's compositions (which she has not recorded yet), called "Lines."  For good measure, she reached into Harry Warren's wonderful songbook and pulled out  his poignant, "This Heart of Mine." She also found time for Cole Porter's swinging "Get Out Of Town," a real crowd pleaser.

  

Organist Gary Versace

McGarry moves easily, almost nonchalantly, between the folk, pop and jazz genres, an as she does, she uses her body language and the microphone deftly to draw both the audience and her band mates into her performance. She relates to her audience like a good lover; direct, reassuring, humorous, never predictable, and always with a smiling comeback that speaks to the heart. It is striking not only to hear her sing, but to actually see how she sings; how she effortlessly negotiates her pitch range with faultless intonation; not faltering or careening out of her depth; always finding ways to turn words and phrases with delightful surprise.



Drummer/percussionist
Clarence Penn



Today's CD recordings arrive with all the requisites for enjoyment "cooked" in: Excitement, suspense, tension and release, ambiance, mood changes, modulated tempi, energy, fantastic aural colors, to name some. Whatever needs to be added to the experience can be done digitally by enterprising, imaginative recording engineers, producers, mixers, and technicians. This has conditioned the music lover to expect a mirror-copy of the CD from live performances. In some music genres, artists resort to elaborate pyrotechnics, noisy distractions and down right musical legerdemain (lip-syncing) to bridge this gap. Not so the folk or jazz artist, they must live or die inside of that 'cruel space' that extends between the microphone and the audience. Many artists can paint the pictures, and tell the stories in that space that induce excitement and festive gaiety, but few possess the 'tools' to explain the meaning of the stories they tell, or the pictures they paint: the meaning of the art form they represent, the art itself; of love; of 'the blues'; of life. Kate McGarry is one of the rare artists who brings to her performance, the passion and the will to reveal that meaning in word, song and deed.  

Kate McGarry: "Girl Talk"

Year: 2012

Style: Jazz/Folk

Label: Palmetto Records

Musicians: Kate McGarry - vocals; Keith Gantz - guitars; Gary Versace - organ and piano; Reuben Rogers - bass; Clarence Penn - drums and percussion.

Special Guest :  Kurt Elling - vocal on track 5 (O Cantodor)

Review: A straight ahead music CD produced by an artist in "admiration and gratitude for our strong lineage of visionary jazz women" (McGarry), arrives with great expectations. If it is to stand on its own, and endure the scrutiny of the zealous protectors of the tradition; then it is imperative that it satisfies some basic requirements. For instance, the artist ought to be uniquely talented, committed to the project, enjoy broad audience appeal, and more importantly, possess impeccable timing.

Kate McGarry's new CD "Girl Talk" puts on display her unique talent, appeal and commitment to making this project a triumph. The Nashville Scene extols McGarry as a rare artist who "embraces jazz'z freedom yet points the genre toward a future that's as fresh and thrilling as its past." The New York Times summed up her 2008 CD, "If Less Is More, Nothing Is Everything" as "astute and sensitive." This leaves timing, which is everything; but McGarry has powerful developments in the genre working in her favor. Ever increasing numbers of new, exciting, enthusiastic, well trained artists are committing their time and ideas to jazz; re-discovering vast musical and inspirational treasures in the canons, catalogs and songbooks of iconic jazz masters; infusing new genre-rejuvenating vitality into the arteries of jazz; having an ameliorating effect on its general health; and clearing space for the art form to continue growing and thriving.

Additionally, with the advent of stunning sound improvements in recording technology, plus revolutionary marketing strategies that are ferreting out new audiences all across the world wide web, essentially a widening of the 'timing-dynamic window,' is allowing artists such as Kate McGarry to look out and target increasing multitudes of hungry music lovers. All of which points to lots of listening and talk; In this case "Girl Talk." 

Two central emotional planks supporting "Girl Talk" are the recognition and acknowledgement of strong, assertive, independent, compelling women in jazz music, or as McGarry states, women "singing at a time in our nation's history when women's voices and dreams were still so easily silenced or devalued"; and the unquenchable thirst for social justice. In the first track on the CD (We Kiss in a Shadow), McGarry addresses both with folkish poignancy, she projects quiet independence and assertiveness in selecting this love song, originally soaked in fear, from Rogers and Hammerstein's 1951 "The King and I," to bring awareness of the social injustice and trampling of the civil rights of the New Jersey student who jumped off the George Washington in 2010 after being outed, as gay. She is perfectly accompanied by an elegant piano played by Gary Versace, who is consciously in sync with the depth of feeling the song emotes.

McGarry establishes seriousness and sincerity by eschewing the 'easy' trap of reprising the vocal style of any of the singers that she so admires. Instead she let's her own "sweet-toned" (Nashville Scene) voice respond to the lyrics of the top drawer song writers she chose: Rogers and Hammerstein; Neil Hefty; the Gershwins; Harry Warren; Vincent Youmans; Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini; adding inscrutable cachet, and enviable modernity to her performance.

McGarry's exploration of the rooms, both emotional and musical, that contained the potent siren songs of her beloved jazz singer-mothers, presents a balanced set of choices, moods, colors and styles. She becomes starkly sultry on the title track (Girl Talk), imbuing the lyric with silver-edged elocution and an attractive lyrical gait, much like Carmen McCrae. She induces a settled growl into the song's background from Gary Versace's organ, informing her willowy interpretation with hip believability.

Though McGary astutely avoids categorizing her singing style, and insists that she does not consider herself  "a traditional jazz singer per se," it was evident when she entered that room (I Just Found Out About Love) where she developed her organic vocal style through early training with legendary jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp; not only was she a jazz singer, but she "liked it!" It showed in her vivacity and the way band swung the tune. On Harry Warren's not often heard (This Heart of Mine) and Savitt & Watson's (It's A Wonderful World) she employs sparse backing to deliver delicious, jazzy interpretations like a seasoned traditional jazz singer.

Whatever she is, McGarry is at her quintessential best painting with the colors of emotion and hurt (The Man I Love). Taking on this Gershwing classic, she tortuously creates an excruciatingly painful mood, then deliberately picks it apart with detailed torment and pathos as Gary Versace's deep-water organ-burble forms warped ripples underneath the 'longing' and 'waiting' in her voice; pushing it over the edge to unendurable agony.

Singer Kurt Elling

The appearance of singer Kurt Elling, and the pairing of his voice with McGarry's, adds exotic elegance and a contemporaneous frame to the date in keeping with the intent of the CD. Keith Gantz's guitar adding authentic Brazilian flavor to the convincing duet. Elling, who is the heavyweight in his class at the moment, and McGarry might find that "This Could Be the Start of Something Big."

McGarry emerges as a rare artist with a penetrating intuitive sense, modulated by opportune timing, driven by an innate desire to make change through bold action. Not surprisingly these are qualities that have shaped her personality going back to her college years, and as a natural consequence, have become essential themes that recur and pervade throughout the body of her work. She sings her kinds of songs, in a style built from her feet up, that ooze with beyond-her-years good solid judgement, and one of a kind vocal talent refined with improvisational skills and a breezy fluency in the idiom that adds power and refreshing appeal to "Girl Talk."

McGarry cites Sarah Vaughn, Betty Carter, Anita O'Day, Shirley Horn, Nina Simone, Elis Regina, Sheila Jordan, Irene Kral and Abbey Lincoln, as esteemed, compelling voices in "detailing the struggles and triumphs of their lives and journeys." I would respectfully like to add to her list a titan, (much removed from McGarry's) sphere of instruction; Bessie Smith, one of the toughest and most influential women in music: In my opinion, her true legacy resides somewhere in the account of her dealings with the feared Ku Klux Klan; she shot at them, and they ran!

Track Listing: We Kiss In A Shadow; Girl Talk; I Just Found Out About Love; The Man I Love; O Cantador; This Heart Of Mine; I Know That You Know; Looking Back; Charade; It's A Wonderful World.

Produced by Keith Gantz
Co-Produced by Kate McGarry

Recorded at Maggie's Farm by Matt Balitsaris
Additional recording done at Sound Pure Studios, Durham, NC
Engineered by Jason Richmond

Kurt Elling vocal recorded at Sean Swinney Studios, NYC
Engineered by Sean Swinney
Mixed by Keith Gantz at Tripniplicus Studios, Durham, NC
Mastered by Gene Paul at G & J Audio










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Ro Sham Beaux

Year: 2012

Style: Rock/Indie/Jazz

Label: Red Piano Records

Musicians: Zac Shaiman - saxophones & effects; Luke Marantz - keyboard; Oliver Watkinson - bass; Jacob Cole - drums & glockenspiel.


Ro Sham Beaux
L - R Oliver Watkinson (bass)
Jacob Cole (drums)
Zac Shaiman (saxophone)
Luke Marantz (keyboard)

Review: After one listen to Boston's Ro Sham Beaux, I was entreated to concede, unambiguously, on two counts from the experience, that, the person who described RSB as having "honed a compelling book of original tunes that embraces pop's concision, indie rock's textural resourcefulness and jazz's improvisational imperative," definitely knew his RSB onions, and further that, "Rather than serving as a launching pad for extended solos, RSB tunes are vehicles for jaw-dropping group interplay and quicksilver shifts in tempo, texture and momentum. Above all, RSB infuses their music with a sense of unabashed joy, as if exalting in each other's company." My other concession derives from this cogent observation of the band's pianist/keyboardist, Luke Marantz: "We thrive in the spaces between order and chaos." 

Well, as the 'spinning' of the CD progressed, I made a discovery of my own ,which more or less, corroborates the aforementioned morsels of sagacity, that: Ro Sham Beaux's saxophonist Zac Shaiman plays with a full-length, liquid intonation that is unforgettably distinguishable, and presents an inviting, accommodating foil to the untamed, jazz indie rock rhythms surging like molten, musical lava, out of the combo behind him.

Ro Sham Beaux is not a group of rock jocks out of a jamming garage that found a way to put together a record date. These players are the real deal; highly trained; experienced and rigorously steeped in the jazz tradition. Saxophonist Zac Shaiman, started in his teens at Don Braden's NJPAC jazz program, and has performed with drummer Billy Hart, pianist Geri Allen and saxophonist Joshua Redman. Pianist Luke Marantz earned several national jazz awards before graduating from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, Texas. Bassist Oliver Watkinson studied jazz bass at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, and has gone on to undergraduate studies. Drummer Jacob Cole, after early mentoring from master drummers Rick Lotter and Eddie Marshall, went on to the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico, where he studied jazz and Afro-Caribbean styles and rhythms.

There is a wonderfully engaging mixture of styles, tempo and rhythm seasoned into the eleven tracks on the date, starting with Zac Shaiman's melodic, flared-nostril, galloping saxophone sound (BEARBLADE). Distinctly discernible is the Caribbean influenced, sauntering bass line of Oliver Watkinson, that carries with it a subtly attracting reggae flavor. Shaiman's voice is especially suited to the tunes with flowing melodic lines (Town), with its picturesque, lilting, liquid, waltz tempo, that draws an extended bass solo from Watkinson. Jacob Cole's brush work is impeccable, his time keeping precise, and he shows great maturity with his balanced approach.

The band collectively weaves a magic web of pungent rock and cool jazz (Meatballs are the Way to a Woman's Heart). Shaiman's gives the tune an instrumental pop/R&B sound, reminiscent of the playing style of the influential 80s saxophonist David Sanborn.  It is probably the most danceable and memorable tune of the date and features solid, curvaceous bass figures from Watkinson. The other selection that matches it for glue-like cohesiveness and acrid rhythm (Tejas Drive), where Keyboardist Luke Marantz and drummer Jacob Cole collaborate to come as close to chaos, as the mood and feeling would allow, Marantz lays down some of his most rhythmic passages, and also shows a great ear with his brush work.

That these are extremely versatile musicians, goes without saying. They jump all over the indie rock pop (Slave and the Cube), nailing it in place with an above the rim lyricism that places it squarely in the category of "order." Then they take (Soul Crusher), make your eyes water with it opening lament, change its tempo to resemble a theme from a TV dramatic series, and then faultlessly reverse the mood with Shaiman's saxophone crying to the end. Turning next to the (Dreamulator), Marantz's keyboard seems to get stuck in a world of fantasy, starting with its spooky toy piano intro, and proceeding to draw Shaiman's sax into jagged unevenness, however it is Marantz's excellent brush work again that maintains a sense of balanced reality.

There is chaos. Chaos has a penchant for getting underway in fits and starts, but once it sets in, it nourishes only havoc, carnage, and murderous obliteration. So it is with Ro Sham Beaux. It starts marginally (keut str8 boiz), like the denizens described in the title. Then breaks out like a virus on Marantz's keyboard, and Cole's drums, in jagged grooves (Joga [Bjork]). It becomes a high-pitched, banal, monotonous lament (High Society) again heard out of Marantz's keyboard. Shaiman's saxophone attempts to restore order, but is over whelmed by the irrational rhetoric between order and chaos, and finally succumbs to the tumult. Chaos becomes full-blown (Anthem), it stretches from 'a remote farm' through the bass, drums and saxophones of life, to the obliteration of house, home, fortune and life by voracious, uncaring, rampaging, 'bulls' and 'bears' up and down "The Street"; inviting the question: "Now what is it you want? It pauses like a dying sound from Marantz's earnest keyboard: Then it returns in cacophonous overdrive, with havoc, ritualistic carnage and morbid death throes before its final dying breath. This is the chaos of Ro Sham Beaux. It is total. There is no in between!

Ro Sham Beaux is a band of excellent, gifted musicians. The have put together a dynamite CD that has the excitement, suspense, gripping plot and mind-blowing denouement of a good novel, that once started, can't be put down. Those who are attracted to these pleasures in art, will find this date to their liking.

Track Listing: BEARBLADE; Slave to the Cube; keut str8 boiz; Town; Soul Crusher; Tejas Drve; Meatballs are the Way to a Woman's Heart; Joga (Bjork); Dreamulator; High Society; Anthem. 

Produced by Ro ShamBeaux
Recorded by Joe Tooley at Q Division Studios in Somerville, MA
Mixed by Joe Tooley
Mastered by Gene Paul at G&J Audio

http://www.rsbmusic.net/
http://www.redpianorecords.com/

CD Review: Wadada Leo Smith: Mbira - "Dark Lady Of The Sonnets"

Year: 2012

Style: Spiritual Music

Label: TUM Records

Musicians: Wadada Leo Smith - trumpet and flugelhorn; Min Xiao-Fen - pipa and voice; Pheeroan akLaff - drums.

Mbira: L - R Pheeroan akLaff (drums)
Min Xiao-Fen (pipa and voice)
Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet, flugelhorn)

CD Review: As a follow up to his enormously satisfying and exciting CD: "Heart's Reflections"  (Cuneform Rune, 2011) that comprised a band of 14 musicians, Wadada Leo Smith's 2012 release of Mbira: "Dark Lady Of The Sonnets" (actually recorded in 2007), represents a stark departure from "Heart's Reflections'"  muscular innovation and daring, spontaneous, improvisation. Appearing in this trio setting with Smith is his outstanding drummer Pheeroan akLaff from "Heart's Reflections" - their association actually goes back to 1975-76 - and the new voice(s) of Min Xiao-Fen. As Smith explains: "Mbira" is an ensemble dedicated to realizing a spiritual music within the American creative music idiom." 

Min Xiao-Fen was born in Nanjing, the ancient capital of China. She brings the flavor of the ancient music of her tradition into contemporary times, via the pipa, on which she is internationally recognized as virtuosic. As such, she is accomplished whether performing in classical form, avant-garde, or improvising freely. The pipa is a four-stringed Chinese musical instrument that is plucked when played. It is also known as the Chinese lute, in that it has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets, ranging from 12 - 26. Min Xiao-Fen played for a decade in the Nanjing Traditional Music Orchestra of China as its principal pipa soloist. She has been instrumental in introducing the pipa to composers, musicians, and audiences outside of Chinese traditional music.

The CD opens (Sarah Bell Wallace) with the strong, unwavering, profoundly spiritual and mystic voice of Min Xiao-Fen's pipa, as Sarah Bell Wallace, Wadada Leo Smith's mother, whom this piece memorializes, might have called any of her five children to her side. The energy reflected out from Smith's trumpet and akLaff's drums is palpable, as they sew together a deeply spiritual musical fabric, much like the "quilts, bedspreads and many other things," Sarah Bell Wallace used to design for her family and others. Underneath these dynamic sound-colors, Xiao-Fen's pipa carefully, exotically, teases out the threads that bind together memories of "a loving mother, a master cook of fine foods, an artist who made objects of art using wood and plastic, the captain of her high school's basketball team and its star player." (Wadada Leo Smith).

Wadada Leo Smith

"Dark Lady Of The Sonnets" is arranged in five distinct, non-metrical spiritual compositions that flow together like an expansive, life-giving ocean; being constantly energized and supported by its own movement.

The second movement (Blues: Cosmic Beauty) is jagged, angular, non-linear, busy, beautiful in its infinite grandeur and utter unimaginable chaos of color, as perceived by western contemporary creative sensibilities; focused on, described, and defined within the blizzard-like density raining down through akLaff's percussive passion; and a celebratory, renewing, rising and setting of the cosmos' most vital force, visualized from the awesome power and clarity of Smith's blazing trumpet. But there is also present, an intensely silent, mystical, cosmic beauty that is perceived through the 'Eastern musical eyes, and spirit' of Xiao-Fen's pipa, which is described with the instrument's inherent ethereal gentility, elegance, and the supplication of humanity heard in Xiao-Fen's voice chant (Blues: Cosmic Beauty), that  depicts, not only  a work, "celebrating the beautiful creation that Allah the Almighty made" (Wadada Leo Smith), it also celebrates an indispensable co-existence of cultures: East and West: Ancient and new.

Wadada Leo Smith's spiritual foundation and intellect are vast, deep, and nurtured by a perspective that is all encompassing. In the third movement (Zulu Water Festival), his imagination captures completely the spiritualism, mysticism, and spectacular, subliminal pulchritude of 60,000 Zulus dancing gracefully at daybreak, and whose images are reflected from a mirror-like lake surface, that is 50 miles wide. The pipa and the Smith's horn begin by describing the lake's clarity and grandeur, soon the pipa's majestic fret records vividly, the pomp, splendor, and movement of the dance, while the drums and horn reach down to measure the depthless water.

The percussive genius and fertile musical concepts of akLaff collaborate effectively with Xiao-Fen's angelic voice and sensitive pipa in the first part of a creative dance ballet dedicated to the (Dark Lady of the Sonnets), a term penned by Poet Amiri Baraka (formerly known as LeRoy Jones), for the transcendent jazz vocalist Billie "Lady Day" Holiday. The pipa captures the smouldering mystery surrounding Holiday's life, while Xiao-Fen's voice describes with elegiac serenity, the sadness, and loss of a 'beautiful, rare, human flower' to tragic circumstances. Smith's trumpet reprises vignettes of Holiday's happier times with piercing clarity, but there is palpable emptiness and fetching melancholy in his voice. In the second part of the piece, Smith seems to reject the notion that Holiday's life was a tragedy; hard, yes; but not tragic. Smith's now trumpets Holiday's songs and life as "live drama... completely full of love and so compassionate...a heroic human being." He plays with an exuberant, indomitable spirit that overtakes akLaff drums with its sense of urgency, forcing the currents of their own compassion and love for Holiday to flow with antic enthusiasm.

The final movement (Mbira) is a composition that is ceremonial and complex in form, but deeply spiritual. The interplay between the trumpet, pipa and drums is more turbulently choreographed, and the roiling chaos, especially from akLaff's drums, is down reaching and persistent. It is in two parts and represents aspects of the Shona culture in Zimbabwe. It employs several changes in direction and rhythmic character; developing and maintaining coherence in its improvisational elements essentially through the informed leadership and vision of Wadada Leo Smith, and the sublime musicianship displayed by the ensemble's players.

Wadada Leo Smith continues to produce music that is very challenging conceptually, and spiritually, but it is always accessible. His many followers and admirers should be thrilled with "Dark Lady of the Sonnets." In this work, he has allowed his creative genius and beautiful spirit, unrestricted entrance to the rhythmic/sonic spectrum and architecturally clear forms that have become the hallmark of his projects. In retrospect, his stated goal for Mbira: "creating an ensemble dedicated to realizing a spiritual music within the American creative music idiom," now seems humble, but within character. To say that, with mutual cooperation and democratic communication, he has successfully melded together the artistic vagaries of two very different, almost opposing cultures, with free expression, tolerance, spirituality, respect and love, would be an understatement.

Track Listing: Sarah Bell Wallace; Blues: Cosmic Beauty; Zulu Water Festival; Dark Lady of the Sonnets; Mbira.

Recorded by Esa Santonen at SoundTeam Godinski Studio, Kirkonummi, Finland.

Mixed and Mastered by Henrik Otto Donner, Esa Santonen and Janne Malen at DER in Tammisaari, Finland.

Produced by Petri Haussila

TUM Records Oy, Etelaranta 14, FI-00130 Helsinki, Finland

email: info@tumrecords.com

http://www.tumrecords.com/