Tributes to the Masters by Alain Londes
/ April 1, 2011
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Jazz artists often favour standards penned
by those artists who inspire them most, and some even record complete
tribute albums. But it's not easy to give well-worn vehicles a new spin,
even with the best of intentions. An artist has to make his or her own
voice heard in order to effectively interpret a piece, while maintaining
some connection to the original material. Not an easy task, but it's
possible, as evidenced by the following releases.
Joe Lovano | Us Five: Bird Songs
Blue Note 2011
In terms of melody, rhythm,
and harmony, Charlie Parker was a key influence on Joe Lovano. His late
father, a tenor player as well, was a faithful bopper. In his notes
to this latest release of his, Lovano claims to have been preparing
for this project all his life. With Parker now gone for over 50 years,
it is fitting to revisit his music in a deeper way than with a mere
tribute album. Lovano attempts this with the help of James Weidman on
piano, recent Grammy Award winner Esperanza Spalding on bass, and both
Otis Brown III and Francisco Mela on drums, both of whom add complexity
to the overall sound without becoming overbearing. The saxman is the
dominant player throughout the proceedings.
“Barbados”, for one, is an island-inspired piece with subtle rhythmic
interplay anchored by the bassist and drummers. The US Five stretches
“Ko Ko” to provide more space for Lovano to juxtapose a collage
of riffs around the elongated melody; in that short piece, lasting barely
two minutes, the band seamlessly weaves together
“Carving the Bird,” “Bird Feathers,”
and “Bloomdido.” All in all, Lovano's interpretation is both a relaxed
and relaxing musical outing.
The Microscopic Septet: Friday the
Thirteenth
Cuneiform Records : 2011
According to a recent New
York Times article by Larry Blumenfeld, pianist Joel Forrester knocked
on soprano saxophonist Phillip Johnston's door one day, thus initiating
a long lasting collaboration between two Monk lovers. The present album
is their band’s testament to their main influence, both in inspiration
and style. This New York septet consists of a saxophone quartet backed
by a standard rhythm section, an instrumentation that gives a very clear
picture of what Monk was all about. On
“Brilliant Corners,” the theme is played slowly at first, and then
repeated at twice the tempo. The musicians will at times dance around
the melody without straying too far, as in the title track with its
basic 4-bar structure, though piano and bass contribute subtle solos
for just the right balance. “Teo” features a vibrant, even cacophonous
frenzy from Dave Sewelson’s ballsy baritone, followed by a more soothing
tenor interlude from Mike Hashim. In a few instances, we hear two musicians
toying around with a melody to great effect, such as the soprano and
piano pairing on “Worry Later.” This sterling and sometimes quirky
horn section affords the listener a good opportunity to rediscover Monk's
offbeat melodies.
Géraldine Laurent: Around Gigi
Dreyfuss Records 2010
In this new release French
alto-saxophonist Géraldine Laurent has slipped in four of her originals
between numbers by Gigi Gryce, Art Farmer, Thelonious Monk and Duke
Ellington, whose “Black And Tan Fantasy” she plays with great aplomb
as an opener to this disc. Gryce, an alto player, is a forgotten figure
now, yet in the 1950s he composed such hard bop classics as
“Minority,” “Nica's Tempo,” and
“Smoke Signal,” all of which Laurent includes here.
“Nica's Tempo” is an easy ballad moving through a series of
minor chords outlined by pianist Pierre De Bethmann's lyricism. Subtle
African rhythms support Farmer's “Mau Mau,” named after the guerrilla
movement in Kenya during that period. Monk's
“Gallop's Gallop” is the shortest track, clocking in under two-minutes.
Laurent's own tunes blend in well with the rest of the tracks;
“Smash,” the tenth track, moves steadily over a 6/8 time signature,
a prelude of sorts to the next piece,
“Smoke Signal,” where she kicks it up a notch with some fleet fingering. Version française... |
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