A forum for jazz reviews, discussion of new jazz & blues music, the musicians, reviews of recent and historical releases, reviews of live performances, concerts, interviews and almost anything I find of interest.
by Ralph A. Miriello
Not all music is designed to make you dance, to bring a smile
to your face, or rock you out with reckless abandon. Music can pull at your
emotional strings and elicit an amicable response, or it can energize activism or
foment anger when it portrays injustice or a shameful human condition. Music can
bring us together or at times it can divide us like a cleaver. Some music is meditative,
ethereal, rhythmically drone-like or tonally expansive to create a path to awaken
the most spiritual side of our inner psyches or to help heal.
Musician/educator Chris Dingman had a life changing experience in 2018. His father Joe was suffering from
what became a terminal complication from cardiac Amyloidosis. Chris offered a musical gift for his father, five hours of spatially soothing music, created specifically to ease the
father’s suffering. Before transitioning, the father uncharacteristically told his son “A miracle
has happened through this music. It has transformed me over and over again. It
has made me stronger, made me want to live life again.” This emotional experience changed the artist’s perception of just how powerful music could be and altered his solo approach to his instrument.
Vibraphonist Chris Dingman has been on my radar since I first
caught his delicate and creative work with a quintet at Firehouse 12 in New
Haven back in 2010. Since then, I have followed this talented artist as his
musical horizons seem to expand exponentially in every passing year. His debut
was Waking Dreams with his quintet from 2011. Then came The
Subliminal and the Sublime, again his quintet, which I named one of the
best releases of 2015. This was followed by his trio on Embrace in 2020, of
which I wrote “a stunning treasure of musical tastes, senses, and sounds." His deeply personal solo album to his father Peace followedin 2021.
Dingman’s work is strongly influenced by the tradition of
the vibraphone as an instrument in jazz. As a percussionist, he has also
absorbed elements of South Indian, Western African, Korean and Brazilian music
in his eclectic playing. He was born in San Jose, California, and studied music
at Wesleyan with artist/educators like vibraphonist Jay Hoggard and multi-reed/composer
Anthony Braxton. I also hear the airy, tubular approach that marks the vibraphonist work of
Gary Burton in much of Dingman’s playing.
Dingman was selected to participate
in the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance at USCLA in 2005 where he
spent two years working with such luminaries as Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Terrence Blanchard. He has studied with jazz masters like bassist Rob
Carter and Jimmy Health and has collaborated with some of the most progressive
and innovative artists in the music today, including altoist Steve Lehman, trumpeter
Ambrose Akinmusire and percussionist/multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey. The man has cred.
On Journeys Vol 1, Dingman creates five, non-symphonic,
what I think of as tone poems. They evoke an atmosphere, a landscape, an occurrence,
a path, or an immersion into a sensory state. These experiences the artist is
aurally capturing are named by their titles. “Silently Beneath the Waves,” Light
Your Way,” “Hope-Rebirth,” “The Long Road,” and “Refracted Light.” Each piece
is performed solo by Dingman using his skill, his creativity and his resonating vibraphone.
On the fifteen-minute “Silently Beneath the Waves,” Dingman creates
a swirling, liquid environment that surrounds you. A womb-like, amniotic fluid-type
protective hollow of space and peace. As a listener, if you release your mind, absorb the
eddies Dingman creates with his soothing, repetitive, sometimes cascading resonant
tones, it can sweep you away, transport you into a sensory world that connects to
a primal part of your being.
Chris Dingman (photo credit unknown)
On “Light Your Way” Dingman’s playing sometimes takes on
the tone of a mbira (pronounced m-Bee-ra) a Zimbabwe-originated instrument that
creates a drone-like, meditative sound by plucking metal tines over a hollowed wood
board or resonator. The pedal tone drone he employs creates the base on top of which
he improvises a secondary harmony line. In the African Shona people tradition, the
instrument is used to summon ancestral spirits. Dingman’s music has become transformational.
His experience with healing and the spiritual effects discovered during his father’s
illness has changed his musical direction and focus.
mbira
On his “Hope-rebirth,” Dingman utilizes the higher register
of his instrument to express lightness, spritely elements that have their own effervescence.
The artist creates a whirl of notes that seem to be set free, open, released. They rise
like emancipated angelic beings from the firma, transversing space and elevating to the
next level.
“The Long Road” could be described as Dingman’s aural
representation of our journey in life from birth to transition. We are created,
we find our way, we discover, we make choices, we love, we lose, and through it
all we are on a long road that hopefully leads us to
enlightenment. The artist’s musical choices are hopeful, the road rises, the
path may be arduous, but it can lead to a higher state.
“Refracted Light” is an immersive experience, an aural translation
of a visual experience. Like we experience joy or awe when we see the refraction or bending of light in
a sunset or a sunrise, or we visit the prismatic dispersion of white light into the
refracted colors of a rainbow. This is an experience that
Dingman's music points out how we should pay attention to its fleeting beauty.
Baritone vocalist Giacomo Gates has just released his latest album Youon the Savant label with an accomplished backing trio that includes the pianist Tim Ray, the bassist John Lockwood and the drummer Jim Lattini. Gates trained ear allows him to reinterpret music often overlooked or underappreciated by others. His inherent musicality and a unique hip approach to vocalizing lyrics allow this vocalist/storyteller to mine the hidden gold in the songs he chooses to sing.
On You, Gates has chosen eighteen different compositions, most under three minutes in duration, to weave the thematic essence of this album- songs that emphasize someone else, someone whose significance is animated by the singer’s delivery, someone who is familiar, one who the listener knows, or even someone like You.
Gates baritone is a warm, resonant instrument that he employs with an unpretentious sense of cool. His voice engulfs you with a revelation that this is a knowing person. He has perceived wisdom in his voice that seems to come from a place where life has been lived and foibles have been experienced. Like a wizened sage who has been there and done that.
Gates sings the words of telling stories penned by songwriting team artists like Bob Russell and Duke Ellington, Ned Washington and Hoagy Carmichael, Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh, Johnny Mercer and Jimmy Van Heusen, Coleman Hawkins and Thelonius Monk, and even Lucky Thompson to name just a few. These are all well-worn compositions that have been visited by others before, but Gates’ delivery and the banter he creates inside this music offers a fresh perspective, a clarity to the listener about the nuances embedded in this music. Listen to Giacomo Gates singing and you're taking a course in life with Socrates or maybe more likely Lenny Bruce. To this, Gates vocal approach is a passing of the musical baton that he carries from some of his vocalist heroes like Babs Gonzales, Jon Henricks, Mark Murphy, and Eddie Jefferson.
Giacomo Gates (photo by R. Miriello)
The album opens with a swinging “Exactly Like You” and Gates weaves multiple songs into the jazz pastiche he creates including elements of Ellington’s “Take the A Train,” Michel Legrand’s “Watch What Happens,” and even Jobim’s “The Girl from Ipanema.” Only a musical history student like Gates can skillfully link into being these disparate approaches so seamlessly?
Storytelling is what this music is all about and Gates expertly personalizes his delivery on his improvised intro to “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love,” worth the price of admission by itself.
Check out the hip “With Plenty of Money and You” and dig the walking bass line from John Lockwood. There is always a knowing commentary in Gates' delivery, with his tongue-in-cheek humor that puts a smile on your face, he relates how bright love could be if only he had money.
The Ellingtonian “I Didn’t Know About You” is a classic torch ballad that Gates brands with his own brand of soul. Just wonderful to hear this song so well brought to life with just the right amount of sincerity.
If you appreciate the judiciously used skill of scatting (using the voice to imitate an improvising instrument like a saxophone) then check out Gates’ on “The Nearness of You.” His voice flows like a slick skiff’s hull through a calm sea, seamless.
Another delight on this wonderful album is Billy Eckstine’s luscious “I Want to Talk About You,” with a beautiful piano solo by Tim Ray. The sensitive “PS I Love You” is a classic Johnny Mercer torch song that demonstrates just how deep Gates’ understanding is of the meaning behind the words of this love song. The swinging “Are You Havin' Any Fun” is just joyous fun. Mercer’s “I Remember You” is a Gates must hear, with some of the trio’s best in the groove moments, and don’t forget drummer Lattini’s deft use of the rim on this one. Don’t’ miss “Everything But You” and allow yourself to be transported to a Harlem nightclub back in jazzes hey day.
“You’ve Changed” is the perfect vehicle for the raconteur Giacomo to speak to his audience, captivate them with his smoky voice, and relate an unspeakable intimacy that almost grabs you by the shoulders through the speakers. Listening to Giacomo is like sitting at a bar with him while he sings to you about his life’s woes. As personal as it gets. Don’t miss the whole band on “I’ve Got News for You” or some of Gates’ best blues on Lucky Thompson’s “You Never Miss the Water ‘Till the Well Runs Dry.”
I have to admit I am a big fan of Giacomo Gates. No other singer on the scene today comes close to him in his milieu. Like a cool breeze on your face as you stroll on a warm sandy beach, Gates singing on You is one of those treasures that epitomizes the simple but finer things in life. The compositions are classic, the delivery is hip, the sensitivity is poignant, or just plain fun. So sit back, put up your feet and enjoy this musical journey.
The Year 2021 stubbornly evolved into what is a post-pandemic year for most of us. Miraculous and effective vaccinations effectively conquered the likelihood of getting seriously ill, or even worse, becoming a casualty from the mutating Covid virus. At least the science seems to have it at bay for now. Isolation, masks, and limiting traveling all added to our safety. For artists in all disciplines of the performing arts- music, theatre, dance, film & fine visual arts- the chance to meet safely with collaborators, to record with colleagues, or even to perform to a live and encouraging audience was practically nil and lingered on for an interminably long period. The shutdown was dreadful for most artists. The creative juices are often stimulated by the chance to interact, collaborate, inspire with peers, and receive valuable feedback that is best emotionally transmitted by the visceral response of a live audience. Was this pandemic going to be responsible for the total evisceration of the arts? Fortunately, many artists found the isolation that the angst that Covid brought on over the last year and one half became a chance to dig deeper into their creative wellspring. Strangely, we were all the beneficiaries of that self-imposed period that allowed some deep reflection, some serious reevaluation, and in the case of musicians some inspired creativity and brilliance in new music.
As the year of 2021 ebbs to its close, it is a tradition of those of us who review jazz and contemporary music, to select some of the music in the genre that we have heard and found worth noting over this past year. It is impossible to pick a "best of list" since it is a totally subjective opinion and certainly restricted to what this reviewer has been able to carefully listen to over this past year. Acknowledging those inherent limitations I humbly offer this one person's ideas of notable, creative, and often promising music of 2021. I also found some rewarding reissues and historical recordings that are definitely worth a listen. I list the music in no particular order. I know there is much more music that is worth your serious attention, but I hope my list helps you navigate and hopefully introduce to you the plethora of deserving artists who have created some magical music this year. Happy Holidays to all. Listen and have fun.
Reissues and Historical Releases:
Roseanne Vitro: Listen Hereoriginally recorded in 1982
Some great things come in small packages. As a state, Rhode Island is according to its geographical area, the smallest in the country. Despite its’ small footprint, the state features many important universities, beautiful resorts and has some of the countries most
beautiful beaches, so much so that it is known as the Ocean State. The bassist/composer Dave
Zinno hails from Rhode Island, and his compact appearance belies the large and
dynamic presence he projects when he plays his double bass.
Zinno attended the University
of Rhode Island and Berklee School of Music and is a teaching associate at URI,
Salve Regina, and Brown Universities. Fetishis the third album
from his group Unisphere, and was released back in September on Neal Weiss’
Whaling City Sound. For the musicians, this album came like a long-awaited breath
of fresh air, a release of energy from the pent-up restrictions that held them hostage to restrictions for over a year during the peak of the pandemic. This album was their get out of jail card to return to playing and hopefully performing to a real audience.
Zinno energizes the music of this album with power,
exuberance, and skill that sets the stage for an enjoyable listening experience
right from the opening salvo of his title composition “Fetish.” Zinno’s double
bass repeats the fusillade-like opening statement with fury and precision and the group takes the clue and lightens up the intensity with a controlled, tight front line of sax and trumpet, two pianists, and a spirited drummer. This music just shouts out with excitement and it's only the beginning.
The Unisphere
group has a formidable front line that includes tenor saxophonist Mike Tucker
and trumpeter Eric Benny Bloom as they add to the intensity. The dual pianists
include Leo Genovese and Tim Ray add texture and style and the rhythm section
is anchored by Zinno and drummer Rafael Barata.
Leo Genovese’s composition “Out of the Hole” is
a driving outing that features this talented pianist who just shreds with an
endless flow of ideas and intensity. Bloom’s trumpet sends it to the skies and
Tucker wails with piercing intention as Zinno and Barata drive relentlessly.
Zinno offers a fleet pizzicato solo at the coda that resonates with force.
“Unknown Mystery” is a powerful Bloom
composition, with the front line sounding like they could be graduates of the
Art Blakey Messengers school. Zinno’s booming bass just erupts with steady
drive and authority. Genovese offers a spacey electronic keyboard solo and
Barata’s drums percolate kinetically.
Dave Zinno ( photo credit unknown)
Tuckers’ “The Golden Age” is a jagged, energized
piece that features some incendiary work by the saxophonist and some intense front-line
work. Tucker also contributed “Melancholy Daydream” whose music creates the
feel of catching you in a rising thermal, like you’re in a hang glider and reaching
altitudes you never dreamed of. Tucker’s “Over the Horizon,” one of my
favorites of this album, a more subdued ballad that features some somber arco
work by Zinno, some well-matched front-line work by Tucker and Bloom, and Genovese
piano accents that shine. The bassist anchors the song with his huge bass sound
and offers a sensitive pizzicato solo that is a delight.
“So Close So Far” is a Zinno composition that
just struts with confidence. Zinno’s bass chops almost explode with attitude as
he demonstrates formidable facility and inventiveness. Genovese, Bloom, and
Tucker pick up on the music’s raucous sentiment and with Barata’s energized
drums make this one a family affair.
The album adds a sensitive Tim Ray arrangement to
the Brazilian ballad by Edu Lobo titled “Beatrix”. Ray’s piano work is warm and
moving. Zinno and Tucker add to the emotional impact of this song with their individual
contributions. The beauty of this music obviously moved this group and it shows. The drummer Barata
knew this one well having worked with the composer in the past.
One of the album’s standouts, Paul Nagel’s “Future
History,” opens with a dark, fluttering bass entre before Zinno starts with the
ostinato-driven bassline. Genovese’s cascading pianocomps create watery
lines that waterfall over the movement. Tucker’s sax is relentlessly probing and
wails with a rabid sense of purpose, very Coltrane-inspired. Genovese’s piano work
is captivating and teeming with speed and a flow of ideas that are hard to imagine can come
from one bubbling mind.
Dave Zinno’s “Nile” is perhaps the most
adventurous tune on the album. It includes the bassist playing the cuica (pronounced
ku ike), a Brazilian percussion instrument that produces a high-pitched squeaky
timbre which Zinno uses in the opening. The song was written by Zinno in the
eighties after watching the Bogart and Hepburn classic movie “African Queen.” The song emulates the aural sounds of the
jungle and depicts the sauntering, swaying feel of traveling up a river by boat
that is in no hurry to get where it is going. Bloom’s trumpet work here is entrancing,
and Ray’s piano is expansive and splendid. Zinno and Barata maintain the slow,
deliberate pace to perfection.
If you are into high energy music played skillfully and with highly skilled musicians that obviously love working together, Dave Zinno and Unisphere's Fetishis an album that will surely please.
Jazz-Blues Brothers - Jeremy Monteiro & Alberto Marsico Jazz Note 261084-99
It is always a pleasant surprise to discover
musicians, unknown to you but admired and respected on an international level, defining
the depth and breadth of people who carry on the tradition of jazz and blues
throughout the world. Case in point, the latest album from Singaporean pianist
Jeremy Monteiro and Italian organ master Alberto Marisco titled Jazz-Blues
Brothers on JazzNote Records. While this music is an art form that was
developed out of the African American experience, it has and continues to touch
the hearts and souls of people of all races, ethnicities, geographical locations, and life experiences. It is a true communicating vehicle that never ceases to
astound with its unequaled ability to bring people together and share an
emotional expression of the human condition. This album just proves how well
absorbed into musician’s DNA this music has become.
Singaporean-based pianist/composer Jeremy Monteiro
and Italian-based B3 organ player Alberto Marsico are matched here in this
unusual format of having two keyboards. The band includes Oklahoma-raised saxophonist Shawn Letts, drummer
Shawn Kelley, who makes Syracuse NY his home, and the guitarist Eugen Pao who
hails from Hong Kong. The album includes two performances recorded
live in London at the Elgar Room in Albert Hall and includes the under the radar
vocalist chanteuse Miz Dee Logwood on two blues classics “I’d Rather Drink
Muddy Water” made famous by Lou Rawls and an Etta James notable “I’d Rather Go
Blind.”
The album starts with the Marsico
composition aptly titled “Opening Act,” a swinging, sauntering blues. Monteiro’s
piano comps perfectly. Marisco’s funky B3 excites with his fluid and gutsy
approach which is pure joy. Letts’ blows his tenor with ease and confidence as Kelley’s
drums and Marisco’s foot-based bottom lines keep the pace swinging. Pao’s guitar
work is a revelation. This man has some overflowing ideas that just fit without
being trite or overplayed. Monteiro’s piano solo is exciting as it is
appropriately funky.
Monteiro’s composition “Olympia” was first
heard on saxophone great Ernie Watts album Stand Up from 1993. Monteiro joked he was watching the Los Angles
Summer Olympics back in 1984 and wrote this driving gem inspired by the sports
event. There is the drive of sports competition and the regality event in this
music. Marisco’s feet set the beat. There
is pushing tenor work by Letts (you can just hear Watts influence), and percolating
drum work by Kelley setting up the locomotive rhythmic drive of this incendiary
piece. Monteiro offers a scorching piano solo that demonstrates the mastery of
this man. Marisco adds his own organ version of flame-throwing creativity.
Pao’s solo dances on his fretboard with amazing tenacity and precision. This one
just breathes fire.
Getting back to a swinging blues, North
California-based Miz Dee Logwood gravely voice is featured here on “I’d Rather
Drink Muddy Water”. The group swings at a brisk pace and Monteiro’s piano sets
the stage with his own remarkably athletic piano work that just lets loose.
Logwood is a gem of authenticity and soul.
Eugene Pao. Shawn Letts, Jeremy Monteiro, Alberto Marisco Shawn Kelley
Monteiro’s “Mount Olive” has a funky, gospel-like
feel that was inspired by and written for the Mount Olive Baptist Church in
Washington D.C. a place that the pianist visited and was moved by the church's musicality. Marisco has his B3 set to be angelically inspired and Monteiro’s piano
is as funky as if listening to the late Billy Preston in spirit.
Marisco offers four other compositions for
this project. The first is the slow sizzling composition “Lou” which lasts for over
eleven minutes. The song first features Letts on some burning tenor solo on this homage written to the great blues-jazz singer Lou Rawls. The music starts slow and
builds to a white-hot apex with each soloist performing in progression.
Monteiro’s piano gets the next chance to work on the build-up and goes from
gospel to funk. Pao gets his turn on his ripping guitar work. Ultimately
Marisco offers the finale with an inspired B3 solo that shows that this man’s
organ voice is both inventive and very potent. B3 master Joey DeFrancesco has
called Marisco “…one of my favorite organists.” and this kind of playing verifies
his respect.
Probably the funkiest of the songs on this
plethora of fun and moving music is Marisco’s composition “Jack-Pot” which is
another homage this time to jazz organ great Jack McDuff. This one just gets
into an infectious groove that just won’t kick. The gang starts with guitarist
Pao who continues to surprise with his inventive language and formidable chops.
Monteiro’s piano is just smoking and worth the price of admission. No wonder
why Monteiro is called “Singapore’s King of Swing.” He is also the go-to pianist for name
artists playing in Asia. Marisco’s organ work on this one is
just classic, steeped in the style of veteran B3 legend McDuff ,who is a Marisco inspiration.
“Catastrophy,” a "going to the races" composition that has
the band stretch out and features some nice drum work by Kelley> The closer “Wish
Washy” is a soulful end of evening piece that Marisco uses at his home performances and was recorded by
the band remotely during the pandemic from worldwide locations including
Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Italy.
The real closer to this album is the soulful
live performance from London featuring some down-home blues by Miz Dee Logwood,
just a treasure to hear sing on Etta James’ “I’d Rather Go Blind” which she
just owns with sincerity and grizzle. The band, Marisco, Monteiro, and Kelley set
the stage like a throne for the queen Logwood, and she rises to the challenge regally. Pao rips out
a fantastic guitar solo that goes from soft and soulful to fiery and screeching
then back again, inspired by the whole simpatico of this great performance.
Be assured Jazz-Blues Brothers is sure to give you many hours of enjoyable music listening.
There is something very special, very visceral when a listener is given the opportunity to share a solo musical performance. It can be one of the most personal and intimate experiences that a musician can offer to his audience. Marc Johnson was said to have found inspiration to do his latest solo bass album Overpassafter listening to fellow bass virtuoso Dave Holland's solo bass album Emerald Tearsfrom 1977. Johnson's beautiful offeringOverpasson ECM records, like Holland's, will clearly become another must-have inspiration to any musician who wants to tackle the formidable challenge of making a viable solo offering on such a beautiful but unforgiving instrument.
Marc Johnson photo credit Jos Knapean
The album is bare, naked, and yet resplendent in its musical sensitivity and personal declarations. The bassist relies only on his skills, his instrument, and an internal compass that leads him to choose and interpret his musical selections so deftly. The album is a little over forty-three minutes and includes eight compositions that range from Eddie Harris’ stirring “Freedom Jazz Dance” to Miles Davis’ “Nardis” and Alex North’s moving “Love Theme from Spartacus,” the latter two made famous as standards in the Bill Evans’ repertoire. Johnson includes five of his own compositions that are both beautiful and deeply personal, “Samurai Fly,” “Life of Pai, ”And Strike Each Tuneful String,” “Yin and Yang,” and “Whorled, Whirled World.”
Bassist Marc Johnson was born in the heartland of America, Omaha, Nebraska, and grew up in Texas. He attended the then North Texas State University and was part of the school’s acclaimed One O’clock Lab Band with fellow alumni keyboardist Lyle Mays and drummer Steve Houghton. Mays and Houghton were enlisted into Woody Herman’s Thundering Herd, and later it was Mays who recommended Johnson to join Herman’s band. Mays stayed eight months with Herman before leaving to join with guitarist Pat Metheny and forming the Pat Metheny Group. Johnson’s stay with Herman brought him to NYC where an opportunity to sit in with the pianist Bill Evans resulted in his joining Evans trio in 1978. Johnson and drummer Joe LaBarbera would be the pianist’s last trio until his death in 1980.
By his own admission, Johnson was young and had limited experience when he joined Evans’ trio, but he had a fluidity, velocity, and melodic sensitivity that captured Evans’ attention. After Evans’ death, Johnson had to find a way to expand his growth and continue in the musical direction that he had only begun to explore in his brief time with the pianist. Instead of continuing in a piano-based configuration, Johnson looked toward forming a group that could change his musical pallet, expanding on the group's musical possibilities. In 1996 he formed the influential Bass Desireswith dual guitarists John Scofield and Bill Frisell and the drummer Peter Erskine. He also became part of guitarist John Abercrombie’s Trio, again with Peter Erskine in the mid-eighties and through 2007. One of my favorite albums of this group was Novemberreleased in 1993. Johnson’s proclivity and skill for working with guitarists led him to be sought after by other notable guitarists including Pat Metheny, Ben Monder, Pat Martino, Ralph Towner, and Wolfgang Muthspiel.
Johnson’s proficiency on his instrument led him to work with a rainbow of musical artists including pianist Enrico Pieranunzi and saxophonists Stan Getz, Lee Konitz, Joe Lovano, Charles Llyod, Michael Brecker, John Surman, and drummers Jack DeJohnette, Paul Motion, Joey Baron and Armenian percussionist Arto Tuncboyaciyan to name a few.
It was in 1988 when Johnson first worked with his present wife, Brazilian pianist Eliane Elias. It was an Erskine project titled Motion Poet. A few years later he was asked to join Elias’ group and their musical and personal compatibility led to marriage in 1999. It has been a lasting relationship for over thirty years. His musical priorities since joining Elias once again changed back to working with a pianist. Johnson said in a Jazz Times interview from 2020 “My Musical choices ... have been dictated by prioritizing my work with Eliane…It’s wonderful that we can be together and play music together."" For me, it’s been the best of both worlds.”
Johnson’s focus on his work with Elias has come with a greater appreciation for the important influence of Brazilian music. He has won two Grammys for co-producing Elias’ Made in Brazil(2016) and Dance of Time (2017.)
With all his achievements, Johnson’s work on Overpass is a welcome addition to his personal body of work. The album opens with the pulsing Eddie Harris composition “Freedom Jazz Dance,” an often-overlooked gem of free spirit. He does an incredible job of maintaining pace with throbbing pedal point and dances out the melody with liquid precision and enviable precise speed. It is no surprise that even alone, the bass in the right hands can really swing.
“Nardis” is a Miles Davis composition. The title was created by Davis reversing the last name of his friend Ben Sidran and was written for a 1958 Cannonball Adderley session Portrait of Cannonball. The tune was well explored by Bill Evans’ last trio. Here the bassist, perhaps under the spell of Evans’ preoccupation with the song’s many intriguing iterations, explores the composition on his own terms. Johnson uses his sonorous bass to create a drone. He juxtaposes a musical path through the sparse melody with his rich pizzicato facility and his inventive interpretation. His tone is deep, warm, and resonates with a sustain that hangs in the air like a warm gust from a sirocco. The bassist creates an impressive meditative chant that will not be forgotten.
Johnson’s beautifully playful “Samurai Fly” is a reimagining of what he originally released as “Samurai Hew-Haw” on his Bass Desiresalbum from 1986. Here, without the distinctive dual voices of guitarists John Scofield and Bill Frisell, the bassist re-creates this East meets West song. He gently overdubs himself playing a dynamic lead on a slightly dissonant, almost buzzing arco. It at times reminds me of an Americana-style fiddle-like approach and he accompanies himself with an anchoring rhythmic pizzicato. The song conjures up fanciful visions of a militant Samurai fly that is buzzing defiantly to this east meets west war song. Priceless.
“Love Theme from Spartacus” was a theme from the Stanley Kubrick film Spartacus starring Kirk Douglas back in 1960 and was written by composer Alex North. Yuseff Lateef was apparently the first jazz musician to see the potential of this song in the genre, recording it on his oboe in 1961 on his album Eastern Sounds. Bill Evans had purportedly gone to see the film several times and was taken by the beauty of the music. There is no doubt he made the song an important part of his repertoire, most famously being memorialized from his solo album Conversations with Myself from 1963.
Marc Johnson finds this moving piece of music the perfect vehicle for his own singularly personal interpretation of this love ballad. It’s hard to imagine such a seminal love theme could be so well expressed by the single voice of a virtuosic double bassist, but Johnson makes it his own. He starts with several multiple-string plucks that set the stage. The sparse ringing of his decaying notes on the repeating theme resonates with sincerity and his playing barely waivers from the truth of the music’s original iconic essence.
Johnson's composition “Life of Pai” is a dirge-like song that he has dedicated to the passing of both his father and his father-in-law. Sadly both transitioned within months of each other. “Pai” is Portuguese for father and thus " Life of Father." The music utilizes a somber descending feel, sometimes using multiple strings in tandem, and Johnson creates a solemnity that might be considered a sacred requiem.
“And Strike Each Tuneful String” is based on a folk song, “Wonderous Love,” that Johnson's mother used to sing in a church choir. Using these personal recollections- tiebacks to his life experiences and his upbringing- makes his music a living, breathing, DNA-like part of his creative process. You hear the bassist building on ideas, motifs that inspire him, and he expands on them like a meditation that he follows religiously to see what develops. During the process, other ideas emerge, other patterns are introduced, further extrapolations are developed and the music expands organically. Johnson creates a rapidly repeated pattern on his bass that hums, whirls, and vibrates like a turbine in action. There is a visceral connection to the turbulence he creates on his bass patterns that can draw you in, hypnotize you.
“Yin and Yang” is a song developed by Johnson when he was working on experimenting with the sonic aspects of his custom-made double bass made by the Brazilian luthier Paulo Gomes. In his interview with Bass Magazine, which was so valuable to understanding the bassist's thoughts about this album, Johnson said “I got into this strumming thing one day and I said ‘Wow, listen to that.’ I put my ear down in front of the instrument and hit all the strings-when you hear all the harmonics bouncing off each other, it’s really cool.”
Johnson strumming created this drone-like, harmonically rich background that has drum-like qualities. He overdubbed his Eastern-influenced arco to create this contemplative composition. Take a seat in a comfortable recliner, grab a set of good headphones and just lose yourself into this one. Guaranteed to lower your stress and blood pressure and leave you at peace for a little over four precious minutes.
The closing composition “Whorled, Whirled World” has a minimalist form that Johnson created in admiration of such composers like Philip Glass and Steve Reich. The bassist opens with a repeating, cyclical pattern that creates a whirl-like rush. He changes between time signatures without ever losing the flow. He minimally accentuates the whirlwind with improvisational accents that he creates in the moment. There is a feeling that more than one person is creating this gyroscopic-like storm, but it is only Johnson and his marvelous instrument. He modulates his velocity at times and eventually allows the music to fade out at the coda. He creates the impression that this energy-charged musical pattern has a perpetual life all its own.
The pianist/composer Lyle Mays, shockingly to many of us, transitioned on February 10, 2020. His niece Aubrey Johnson, a talented jazz vocalist, said only that his untimely passing was the result of
“…a long battle with a recurring illness.” No further clarification of Mays’ medical condition has ever been revealed publicly.
Lyle MaysPhoto credit Wayne Scott Jones
During his closing days, Mays devoted himself to honing, polishing, and completing a musical project that had consumed him over the years, a recordable dedication to one of his early inspirations, the progressive double bassist Eberhard Weber. Mays first started playing the armature of this composition back in 2009 at a festival in his home state of Wisconsin. The German bassist had suffered a stroke in 2007, and so Mays’ first public performance of this piece was as much a healing, a musical encouragement to Weber to recover, as it was a homage to the man, his work, and its influence. Sadly, Weber’s medical setback was more permanent than originally hoped for. The now eighty-one-year-old bassist has never played again.
Mays came to national prominence for his work as the collaborator and co-composer of the Pat Metheny Group. During that period Mays always left his unmistakable imprimatur on some of the group’s most endearing records. The artist won ten Grammy Awards and was nominated twenty-three times over the years. Despite his importance to the success of the PMG, Mays was satisfied to work his musical and technological magic, mostly avoid the spotlight and be satisfied to play the sidekick to Metheny, his Doc Holiday to Pat’s Wyatt Earp at their musical OK Corral. Throughout his life he was always fascinated with technology, chess, architecture and mu
Mays was playing piano and organ from a young age. He attended North Texas State University (later University of North Texas) and won his first nomination as the composer/arranger for his work on the album Lab ’75 with the school’s One O’clock Lab Band.
North Texas State University Lab'75
While still a student, Mays performed at the Wichita Jazz Festival in 1975 and it is interesting to look at the festival’s performer list from that year as this event proved to be pivotal to Mays' future career. Exploring a musician’s trajectory is always of interest and timely intersections with other musicians often lead to life-changing paths.
From WJF 25 years of Great Jazz Compilation by Gary Hess
Mays’ Student Quartet included bassist Marc Johnson, drummer Steve Houghton, and woodwind player Pete Brewer.
It was unpredictable the way new connections casually made at venues like the WJF could be so important to a young musician’s future. For the bassist, Marc Johnson stars somehow cross each other’s paths and the festival likely served as an informal entre to the pianist Bill Evans. Johnson was eventually chosen to replace a departing Gomez in Evans’ last trio with drummer Joe LaBarbera, and he did so from 1978 until Evans’ death in 1980. No doubt a life-changing experience for the bassist. Johnson went on to a stellar career as one of jazz’s most respected bassists. He remained associated with his classmate Mays for years with his sonorous double bass heard on six of the keyboardist’s recordings as a leader including The Ludwigsburg Concert from 2015.
Drummer Steve Houghton continued his career as a respected sideman, eventually turning to academia, becoming a respected associate professor of percussion at Indiana University among other institutions. Woodwind artist Pete Brewer would continue his career as a successful freelance musician.
If you look at the artist roster for the 1975 Wichita Jazz Festival, the lineup had s a plethora of great drummers that included Max Roach, Ed Soph, Mickey Roker, and Bob Moses (with Burton), but you will also see other important acts including Woody Herman’s Young Herd, Bill Evans Trio, and Gary Burton’s group which included the young guitarist, Pat Metheny. Woody Herman, the legendary bandleader, and clarinetist must have liked what he saw of the Lyle Mays Quartet in Wichita. Shortly thereafter Mays, Brewer, and Houghton were recruited to become new members of Herman’s traveling Thundering Herd later in 1975. Mays was to be the keyboardist for Herman for eight months into 1976 until another Wichita twist of fate would change his path again. Mays and the Metheny first met at the Wichita festival in 1975. They mutually found that they had musically compatible goals. Metheny would leave Burton and Mays left Herman and the two decided to start a new group. The group would record and release their first collaboration Watercolors in 1977 under Metheny’s name. The collaboration would be a rich one and it would last for most of twenty-eight years through their last recording together as the Pat Metheny Group This Way Up in 2005. By that time, traveling and presumably, health issues induced Mays to call it quits.
Watercolors ECM 1977
Watercolors would be Mays' first opportunity to work with the progressive European bassist Eberhard Weber. Metheny had worked with Weber while he was with vibraphonist Gary Burton on his albums Ring from 1974 and Passengers from 1976. Mays again played with Weber on the bassist’s album Later That Evening from 1982. There is little doubt that the German’s playing influenced both these young American pioneers.
Despite being strongly influenced by his classical training, a musical history that he shared with Mays, Weber created his own minimalist, ostinato-based, ethereal, and melancholic approach to his work. He was most likely influenced by the avant-garde composers Steve Reich and Terry Riley. By the early seventies, Weber designed and preferred a five-string-electric bass that extended the instrument’s range, adding more depth and drama to his playing. He was never a boisterous performer who commanded attention. Instead, he wanted his music to speak for itself. Like the free-jazz movement that went off in one direction that veered away from traditional hard bop jazz, or even the frenetic fusion of the early seventies, Weber’s music was a detour that embraced a gentler, more thoughtful approach. There is no doubt Weber’s musical approach, almost chamber-like, was a serious signpost that caught Mays’ attention.
Eberhardis a thirteen-minute opus of pure Mays’ magic. It is a splendid piece of mostly through-composed music. Mays explores elements of classical, jazz, chamber, minimalism, vocalization, and cinematic musical qualities. Typical of Mays’ work, the piece has a tonal depth and emotional reach that displays the man’s expansive concept of what music should be. While the work is a homage to Weber, the music is pure Mays.
Mallett artist Wade Culbreath opens the piece with a repeating tonal movement that creates an almost other-worldly atmosphere upon which Mays solemn pianistic probing floats. Jimmy Johnson’s electric bass bellows beautifully with authority and poignancy in what I have read is a fully composed part. Mays’ niece, the vocalist Aubrey Johnson, enters the scene with a feathery vocalization that has angelic elements as she vocally traces the music lines emphatically. At one point, Mays’ piano has a very bluesy crossed with Americana feel to it that has always been part of his style. Steve Rodby’s beautiful double bass anchors the time with its fluid bottom tone. Bob Sheppard’s flute is introduced for another tonal factor that adds to the orchestration along with some electronic synthesizing effects that seem to be a identifiable part of Mays’ signature style. A quartet of cellos seamlessly adds to the pallet of tonal possibilities. Mallett, piano, flute, bass, and drum interact swelling with energy, and Bill Frisell’s twangy guitar voice briefly makes its appearance. The separate voices of Johnson and Rosana and Gary Eckert almost conjoin. They meld like three pieces of gold transforming into one brilliant ingot by the heat of a scorching crucible that is Mays' music. Jimmy Branly’s drum work erupts like percolating lava, and Alex Acuna adds perceptive percussive accents that just increase the temperature of the rhythmic brew that Mays compositionally constructs. Culbreath and Johnson beautifully match each other’s notes like two empathetic savants. Mays introduces a jazz septet that gets into a fiery vibe section that is the apex of the piece. The section includes some perceptive organ work by Mitchel Forman, with Mays on piano, the explosive Branly on drums, subtle Acuna on percussion, Steve Rodby’s strong acoustic bass, and the multi-reed master Bob Sheppard’s tenor saxophone.
Sheppard’s improvised solo runs for a little over two and half minutes and starts at about the 8:24 minute mark. It is a masterwork of controlled passion powered by a internal sweltering fire that he can call on at any time as is needed. Mays’ orchestrates the music to the summit and then allows Culbreath’s gorgeous, resonant mallet work and some of his own synth accents to melt the piece away, like a fading crimson sunset, turns the sky into a brilliant pastel haze.
The more I listen to this, the more I aurally observe the nuances of his orchestration, the more I realize how much we will miss Lyle Mays and his beautiful world of sonic colors. Eberhardcould certainly be positioned as Lyle Mays epitaph, his crown jewel, but while it certainly is his last recorded work, I am sure that Mr. Weber will listen to this piece, love it and it will certainly put a bittersweet smile on his face. This work should excite those of us who have loved Mays'work for so long, to go back and revisit the body of this exceptional artist's life work. If we do this, we will undoubtedly honor this man’s legacy in the fashion he intended it to be listened to, with joy.
