Jazziz -Earl Klugh

Earl Klugh

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OCTOBER 2013 Digital Edition

october 2013

30 Nylon Beauty

On Hand Picked, Earl Klugh is at the top of his game. By Bill Milkowski

38 About Time

Steve Gadd and the fine art of keeping it simple. By Ted Panken

Earl Klugh

6 october 2013 jazziz

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George Duke has gathered a myriad of funk, jazz, gospel and R&B talents on DreamWeaver. Guests include Christian McBride, Rachelle Ferrell, Lalah Hathaway, Jeffrey Osborne, BeBe Winans, and Perri’s Lori Perry, among others. “Ball & Chain,” features a duet with Duke accompanying the late R&B singer Teena Marie – one of the last tracks she recorded.

20-Time GRAMMY® winner Chick Corea returns with his highly anticipated new band. The Vigil also features guest appearances by Stanley Clarke and Ravi Coltrane.

The Line contains explosive rock energy paralleled with high-level nuanced chamber ensemble playing, highly wrought compositions that are balanced with adventurous no-holds-barred improvising. This project explodes with rock and jazz influences through engrossing improvisational instrumentals, includes 12 original compositions and contributions from various members of the group.

Jeff Lorber, heralded as “one of the founding fathers of fusion” (Keyboard), returns with GRAMMY® nominated power trio the Jeff Lorber Fusion, featuring bassist/ coproducer Jimmy Haslip and saxophonist Eric Marienthal. Hacienda spotlights eleven tracks, including a brilliant take on the Frank Zappa composition “King Kong.”

Yo is a finely crafted blend of traditional acoustic instruments with elements of cutting-edge electronica – a mesmerizing musical alchemy that pays homage to Cuba’s African roots.

Master guitarist Earl Klugh has been lauded as a prodigy, groundbreaker, and one of the true statesmen of contemporary jazz. Klugh’s highly-anticipated Concord debut, HandPicked, is a self-produced solo album with guests Bill Frisell, Vince Gill and Jake Shimabukuro.

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Dave Holland

Prelude

16

Auditions

48

Dave Holland marks 40 years of recording; Erik Friedlander plays through sorrow; Mark Dresser mixes it up, virtually; and two albums emerge out of Africa.

Reviewed: Jim Black, Paolo Fresu Devil Quartet, Wadada Leo Smith & TUMO, Oliver Jones, Alex Sipiagin, and Chick Corea.

10 october 2013 jazziz

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Prelude

18 october 2013 jazziz

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Back in the Game One rainy morning in November 2011, days after losing his wife to a long battle with breast cancer, cellist and composer Erik Freidlander jumped on a bike to deliver his daughter’s forgotten lunch. On his way, his wheel skid across the sidewalk and he fell, tearing the UCL of his thumb. He couldn’t work for three months. “I think when you’re younger you think, ‘Oh, I’ll have my rightful share of disagreeable events, but you know, it’s all apportioned,’” Freidlander explained recently in a tea shop near his apartment in Manhattan. “But it’s not that way. Sometimes you get whacked a couple of times.” With no upcoming performances to distract him, Friedlander went into a period of hibernation, which ended with a sudden jolt in July 2012, when he looked at his summer calendar and realized: “I’ve got to do something. It’s time.” He picked up the phone and called pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and percussionist Ikye Mori. “I felt like the music I would write was going to involve a lot of space and room. They’d be perfect for that. And I wanted the feminine energy.” With Courvoisier and Mori onboard, Friedlander booked a studio, giving himself four weeks to compose. “It’s always two steps forward, one step back, three steps to the side. I was trying to identify this feeling I had — a little bit of moving on, a little bit of looking back, a little bit of mourning.” The result of Friedlander’s latest efforts, the spare and resonant Claws and Wings (SkipStone Records), was released in early October. The album is dedicated to his late wife, Lynn Shapiro, an award-winning choreographer and writer. Friedlander found the title in one of his wife’s poems, and thought it fitting. “Life has a little claw and a little wing,” he says. “You have to have a little of both.” Each track title also evokes Shapiro in some way. “Frail as a Breeze” is a phrase drawn from her poetry; “Cheek to Cheek” references one of her favorite ways of showing intimacy; “Swim with Me” is both a tribute to her love of swimming and, says Freidlander, “an invitation to her to come swim with me. I’m not religious, but I imagine her in this better place, away from suffering.” For the accomplished cellist, the album also represents a re-engagement. “You are so tunnelvisioned by the sickness and the descent into death that you remove yourself from life,” he says. “Then you turn around and realize that life keeps going. You are either in it or you’re not.” —Casey Donahue

jazziz october 2013 19

Out of Africa

The Master Musicians of Jajouka have long entranced Western artists looking for sonic transcendence. Writer William Burroughs and The Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones are just two seekers who found rapture in the sounds emanating from Jajouka, a village tucked in the Djebala foothills of Morocco’s Rif Mountains. Following a tradition that dates back more than 1,000 years, the Master Musicians continue to ply their craft, studying from childhood the sophisticated, dronelike music which is played on drums and reed and string instruments. While the Master Musicians were once supported by sultans, and have since gained worldwide acclaim, their enterprise to preserve their music incurs expenses beyond their means. And so, an all-star group of admiring jazz, rock and world musicians have combined their talents with the Masters’ on the recently released recording The Road to Jajouka (Howe). Proceeds from album sales will benefit the Jajouka Foundation (Jajoukafoundation.org). Produced by drummer Billy Martin and featuring keyboardist John Medeski; saxophonists Ornette Coleman and John Zorn; guitarists Marc Ribot and Lee Ranaldo; bassists Chris Wood, Flea and Bill Laswell; and drummers Martin, Mickey Hart and Aiyb Deng, the recording places the ancient devotional music in a modern context. Yet the trance-inducing Jajouka sound remains at the heart of the project. Bachir Attar, whose family is tied 20 october 2013 jazziz

to the very origins of the music, leads his fellow Jajoukans and also performs on the double-reed ghaita, providing an album highlight during his duet with Coleman. Directly or indirectly, the music of another African country, Mali, has been incalculably influential on Western culture via the blues. The region has been beset with violent upheavals in recent years, which has resulted in economic hardship, particularly for musicians who depend upon tourism to make a living. California/ New Orleans-based blues harmonica player and vocalist JeConte has convened a group of African musicians, The Mali Allstars, on a truly engaging benefit CD titled Mali Blues, the proceeds from which will benefit the nonprofit Soulnow (Soulnow.org). With a core group of JeConte; harmonica player and rhythm guitarist Boubacar Sidibé; lead guitarist and n’goni (traditional string instrument) player Adama Dramé; percussionist Mahamadou Koné and bassist Sekou Bah, the Allstars welcome a host of fellow African musicians, as well. JeConte offers a joyous shout-out to the embattled country on “Nous Aimons le Malí” (We Love Mali), and the powerfulvoiced Khaira Arby is spellbinding on the impassioned plea “Le Monde Pour la Paix” (The World for Peace), which also features expert string work from guitarist Vieux Farka Touré and n’goni master Bassekou Kouyate. Blues, Afro-pop and mesmeric indigenous music make for a heady, harmonious blend. —Bob Weinberg Photo By Cherie Nutting

Real Jazz, Virtual Venues Most people probably don’t associate jazz with cutting-edge communications technology. But for the past few years, bassist Mark Dresser (pictured above) has been using telematic performance to collaborate in real time with musicians all over the world. Dresser began using the technology in 2007, a few years after he had accepted a teaching position at the University of California, San Diego. “My natural community of collaborators had dramatically changed, and I was finding myself going to New York almost monthly,” he explains. “Also, the pragmatic realities of traveling with a bass since 9/11 have gotten exceedingly more complicated.” The foundation of the system is audio networking software called JackTrip. Developed by cellist and frequent Dresser collaborator Chris Chafe, director of Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, JackTrip delivers multichannel, uncompressed CD-quality audio over high-bandwidth networks. Dresser has access to the University of California’s highbandwidth network, but he’d like to see the technology become more widely available to musicians everywhere. Despite that limitation, the musicians in his telematics community is impressive and growing, including pianist Myra Melford, flutist Nicole Mitchell and drummer Matt Wilson. Dresser and company toured, virtually, in April, playing three consecutive concerts from San Diego with musicians and audiences in three difPhoto by Peter Gunnushkin

ferent locations (Amherst, Massachusetts; Stony Brook, New York; and Zurich, Switzerland). Telematics has also had an effect on how Dresser approaches his studio work, including Nourishments (Clean Feed), his excellent new record with a quintet featuring saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa. Several songs developed through telematic collaboration. “A piece like ‘Canales Rose’ was able to evolve over time,” Dresser says. “When you’re able to rehearse and work on music in stages, there’s a certain kind of development that you’re able to get going on that you might not do if you’re going to New York, then say, ‘Here’s a few tunes, let’s play,’ and then record. As a tool it’s allowed me to compose differently and to perform differently.” Dresser is preparing for his next telematics performance on December 15 at New York University. Joining him will be trombonist Ray Anderson and composer Sarah Weaver. They’ll be performing with flutist Anne La Berge in Amsterdam, saxophonist Franziska Schroeder in Belfast and flutist Matthias Ziegler in Zurich. Along with expanding his community of collaborators, Dresser ultimately believes telematics can be a whole new category of performance itself. “This form is inherently audio-visual, and there is the potential for it to be some kind of hybrid performance. It’s not just another venue. It has the potential of becoming a form that in and of itself is friendly to this community of improvisers/ performers/composers.” —John Frederick Moore jazziz october 2013 23

Prismatically Speaking It’s not surprising that Dave Holland found himself listening to a lot of Jimi Hendrix while preparing to record Prism (Dare2 Records); since this project would reunite the bassist and composer with six-string ace Kevin Eubanks, he was trying to get into a guitar frame of mind. And what better place to start than with Hendrix? Besides, Holland, who recently turned 66, had spent a memorable studio session in 1969 jamming with the guitar god, along with guitarist John McLaughlin and drummer Buddy Miles. Holland admires the “feel and freedom” of Hendrix’s music and his band’s ability to “push the boundaries of improvisation.” Holland himself has been pushing musical boundaries since the beginning of his career, first in London’s progressive jazz scene, then later with the likes of Miles Davis, Sam Rivers and Anthony Braxton. In fact, Prism marks the 40th anniversary of his debut recording as a leader, Conference of the Birds, with Braxton and Rivers. Prism is also “the first recording I’ve done almost ever without a horn player,” says Holland. Instead, his latest working band — also named Prism — began with Eubanks, whom Holland had played with extensively in the ’80s and ’90s, but who had been unavailable in recent years due to his commitments as bandleader for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. When Eubanks left Tonight, Holland recruited him, keyboardist Craig Taborn and drummer Eric Harland, and Prism was born. Everybody in the band contributed compositions to the new album (three from Eubanks, two from the others). As with any Holland album, there are strong grooves throughout, from Eubanks’s rock-tinged opener, “The Watcher,” to denser counterpoint from Taborn (“Spirals”) and Holland (“A New Day”) to an upbeat call-and-response number from Harland (“Choir”). And there’s Holland’s slow blues, “The Empty Chair,” perhaps the most specific reference to Hendrix on the CD. 24 october 2013 jazziz

Holland says the group coalesced around a common rhythmic and harmonic language. “But I think what I enjoy is that the pieces the other musicians brought in are pieces that I would never have thought of writing. I don’t want a band where everyone’s playing the same style. The multi-

dimensional aspect” — the prismatic facets — “of the different approaches is what makes the music rich.” As for his own compositions, Holland says, “I’ve always tried to write music for the people I play with. That’s been my motivation from the beginning.” With the right musical setting, his bands can push those boundaries, as well as capture that intangible “feel” he hears in Hendrix’s music. “It’s trying to convey emotion and story in the piece as well — a spirit that will give it life.” —Jon Garelick

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Earl Klugh

Fall Into JAZZIZ Nightlife

For more information regarding this and more than 100 other JAZZIZ discs available for purchase, go to

Acoustic-guitar virtuoso Earl Klugh once again showcases his warm tone and articulate fingering on HandPicked (Heads Up), a quietly radiant set of jazz and pop gems played solo and in collaboration with guests. Duet partners include fellow six-stringer Bill Frisell, ukulele ace Jake Shimabukuro and guitarist and vocalist Vince Gill. In a career spanning more than 40 years, Klugh has recorded with the likes of George Benson, Return to Forever and Bob James. Besides his dazzling technique, the Detroit-born guitar great is known for his interpretations of melodies from the jazz and pop worlds, even as he’s established himself as a fine song-

smith in his own right. For HandPicked, Klugh, who turns 60 in September, dips into the songbooks of The Beatles, The Eagles and The Everly Brothers, as well as Thelonious Monk, Vince Guaraldi and Rodgers and Hart. He also penned three tunes for the session, including the sprightly “In Six,” included here. Klugh conjures the shimmer of moonlight, as his fingers deftly dance to the rhythms he pulls from his strings. Costa Rica has been much in the public eye these days, its burgeoning economy acknowledged by a visit from President Obama earlier this year. More evidence that the verdant nation is growing in so-

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phistication is the increased prominence of its Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional. In March of this year, 72 members of the symphony collaborated with a contingent of South Florida jazz musicians on Bossa Nova Sinfónico: Recordando a Antonio C. Jobim, which captured their performance at the Teatro Nacional in San José. Pianist Michael Orta, bassist Jamie Ousley and drummer Carlomagno Araya form a core rhythm section behind vocalist Rose Max and guitarist Ramatis Moraes, the South Floridians teaming up with the Costa Rican orchestra on a set of standards by Brazilian maestro Jobim. Conductor and arranger Jeremy Fox assures that the intimate acoustic music is never overpowered by the orchestra. Rather, brass, strings and woodwinds add color, texture and cinematic sweep to Jobim gems. The group borrows a Claus Ogerman arrangement

JAZZIZ ON DISC is a 2-CD music compilation from the artists of yesterday, today and tomorrow, bundled in the subscriber copies of the print editions of JAZZIZ Magazine. For this issue, we’ve made Disc One a compilation of music by artists who have appeared at JAZZIZ Nightlife, this magazine’s sister nightclub, in Boca Raton, Florida. Disc Two features fresh jazz from a diverse range of artists. 32 fall 2013 jazziz

JAZZIZ OnDisc FALL 2013

Following her 2009 Burt Bacharach Songbook CD, vocalist Carol Duboc returns to music of her own devising on Smile (Gold Note). The Kansas City, Missouri, native first established herself as a composer, penning songs for R&B singers Patti Labelle, Chante Moore and Stephanie Mills, but revealed jazz roots on her own 2001 release With All That I Am. On Smile, Duboc displays her prowess in the contemporary-jazz idiom. Well-crafted original material draws from bossa nova and samba rhythms in a way that will sound familiar to fans of Michael Franks or Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen. And she’s certainly in great company here. Duboc once again calls on flutist Hubert Laws, who accompanied her on her Bacharach CD, and recruits top session players including keyboardist Jeff Lorber, bassists Brian Bromberg and Jimmy Haslip, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and percussionist Luis Conte. The singer’s cool, understated vocals deftly ride the swaying rhythms of the clever “Elephant.” Included here, the song makes use of the “pachydermin-the-room” metaphor to describe a couple’s unaddressed difficulties. for their read of “Wave,” included here. Moraes’ and Orta’s sparkling opening statements ride Ousley’s and Araya’s insistent groove, while Rose Max’s velvety vocals effortlessly surf the rhythmic tide and gentle swells of brass and strings. Contemporary-jazz guitarist Chieli Minucci recently celebrated his 30th anniversary recording under the Special EFX rubric. As evidenced by his latest CD, Genesis (Shanachie), the group has undergone significant personnel changes over the decades, having started out as Minucci’s duo with percus-

FALL 2013 Fall Into JAZZIZ Nightlife

Disc 1

 Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica  Chieli Minucci and Special EFX  Earl Klugh Victor Espinola  Nanami Morikawa and Phillip Strange Andrew Neu  Palo! Jeff Lorber Fusion  Patrick Lamb  Bikini Jazz  Eric Hansen  Carol Duboc  Randy Brecker/Włodek Pawlik

Disc 1  Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica “Wave” Bossa Nova Sinfónico: Recordando a Antonio C. Jobim [Centro Nacional de la Musica]

 Chieli Minucci and Special EFX “Till The End of Time” Genesis [Shanachie]  Earl Klugh “In Six”

sionist George Jinda. The pair have long since parted, but Minucci recruited A-list players including keyboardist Jay Rowe, bassist Jerry Brooks and drummer Lionel Cordrew. All are on hand for the new release, which spotlights Minucci’s often-exotic compositions and remarkable playing. Minucci also features standout contributions by violinist Karen Brigg, pianist Lao Tizer and vocalist Xu Feiyu. On “Till the End of Time,” our selection, the guitarist offers some intriguingly bent, bluesy notes, as well as agile lead lines that call to mind Wes Montgomery. Brooks and drummer Omar Hakim maintain a slinky backbeat, and saxophonist David Mann blows unison lines and a fiery, albeit too-brief solo to close out the tune.

HandPicked [Heads Up]

 Victor Espinola “Somewhere in Mediterranea” Army of Angels [Harpara Music]

 Nanami Morikawa and Phillip Strange “UMMG” Open Spaces [New Truth]  Andrew Neu “Date Night”

Everything Happens for a Reason [CGN]

 Palo! “Tabaco y Ron Pa’ Mi Santa” This Is Afro-Cuban Funk [Rolling Pin Music]

 Jeff Lorber Fusion “Corinaldo” Hacienda [Heads Up]

 Patrick Lamb “Sweet Tea”

It’s All Right Now [Patrick Lamb Productions]

 Bikini Jazz “No Se Puede Vivir sin Coger” La Receta de la Felicidad [self-released]

 Eric Hansen “Back in the Groove” String Theory [Hansenhaus]

 Carol Duboc “Elephant” Smile [Gold Note Music]

 Randy Brecker/Włodek Pawlik “Night in Calisia” Night in Calisia [Summit]

Mastered by Tod Levine at Magnetic North Studio, NY

If you purchased this magazine without the CDs or would like additional copies, e-mail [email protected] or log onto www.jazziz.com. jazziz fall 2013 33

Photo by Tanner Photography

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Nylon Beauty On Hand Picked, Earl Klugh is at the top of his game. By Bill Milkowski

Photos by Tanner Photography



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In the middle of a Saturday night engagement at a packed Blue Note nightclub in New York City in early August, Earl Klugh interrupted his regular set of potent smooth-jazz anthems like “Dr. Macumba” and “Cabo Frio” to introduce a young talent from the audience. A lean, 16-year-old acoustic guitarist named Matt Wong took the stage and joined Klugh for a relaxed rendition of the wistful Tin Pan Alley tune “Blue Moon,” which went over well with the audience. Then Klugh and his band left the stage, giving up the spotlight to young Wong, who performed a dazzling rendition of 30 october 2013 jazziz

the 1968 Mason Williams instrumental “Classical Gas.” That kind of generosity and selfless mentoring is rare. But the very same thing happened to Klugh, who turned 60 in September, when he was an aspiring 16-year-old guitarist working in a Detroit music store. That’s where iconic jazz saxophonist, world-music pioneer and fellow Motor City native Yusef Lateef first discovered Klugh and plucked him out of obscurity to appear on his 1970 Atlantic album Suite 16. It was Klugh’s first time in a recording studio, and he appeared on just one track, a soulful rendition of The Beatles’ tune “Michelle.” The follow-

“I look back on everything that I’ve done, and it makes you feel good when you can pass it on. Because I know how I felt when I was that age.”

ing year, guitarist George Benson took the gifted 17 year old under his wing, recruiting him to play on his second CTI album — 1972’s White Rabbit — and, subsequently, to tour. Klugh, who looks today like he hasn’t gained a pound since the release of his self-titled debut album in 1976, will never forget those big breaks given to him at the beginning of his career, which is why he’s paying it forward now. “I look back on everything that I’ve done, and it makes you feel good when you can pass it on,” he says in a reflective tone. “Because I know how I felt when I was that age. Any little bit of

help or inspiration that you can give a kid is well worth it. So I enjoy it.” Of course the Grammy-winning guitarist had other mentors along the way, notably the late, legendary guitarist Chet Atkins, whom Klugh continues to credit in the liner notes of his albums. As he wrote about Atkins in the thank-you section of his latest CD, the brilliant solo-guitar outing, Hand Picked (Heads Up International): “The luckiest day of my life was seeing you on The Perry Como Show! You changed my life!” It was not only Atkins’ six-string mastery but also his wide stylistic range that fascinated the 13-year-old Klugh when he first caught the Country Gentleman in 1967 on his parents’ television set. “I was already playing finger-style guitar,” he recalls. “I had been taking formal lessons with a guitar teacher in Detroit who was a big Chet fan. So when I finally saw him on TV, I instantly related to him because he played with a thumb pick and fingers.” After that Perry Como show, Klugh went out and bought his first Atkins album, 1966’s It’s a Guitar World, which included versions of Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say” and The Beatles’ “For No One.” “At that point, Chet was definitely my guitar hero,” Klugh says. “It was just amazing what he was able to do. A lot of it was just the technical aspect of playing the guitar, but a lot of it for me was that Chet was able to play so many styles of guitar and play them all extremely well. So I got into different styles of guitar playing just from listening to his recordings, which I stocked up on over the next several months after buying that first one. I’d just sit in my room and drop the needle on all that vinyl, trying to learn those licks.” Eleven years later, in 1978, Klugh appeared with Atkins and George Benson on a memorable “Soundstage” television special that aired on PBS. Together the three distinctive six-string stylists ran down an eclectic program which included Luiz Bonfa’s haunting Brazilian number “Manha de Carnaval,” Don Gibson’s loping country tune “Oh Lonesome Me,” the classic jazz jam vehicle “Cherokee” and a rendition of John Philip Sousa’s anthemic “Stars and Stripes Forever.” “That show was really well received,” Klugh recalls. “It really blew up out of nowhere and gave a big boost to my career at that point.” Atkins’ influence is traceable through all 30 of Klugh’s recordings as a leader, right up to Hand Picked, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz chart. Unfortunately, much of Klugh’s work on past albums has been marred by vanilla arrangements seemingly intended to appease rather than challenge his audience. Listeners who prefer more daring and provocative fare have accused Klugh of being a poster boy for smooth jazz, a subgenre of jazz derisively dismissed by its critics as “happy jazz,” “hot tub jazz” or “sonic pablum.” But a guitarist with serious chops has always lurked just beneath the glossy surface of Klugh’s albums. That musician comes fully to the fore on Hand Picked, the third solo-guitar outing of Klugh’s career. Recorded primarily at his home studio in Atlanta, Hand Picked showcases Klugh’s signature contrapuntal style on renditions of standards like Thelonious Monk’s “’Round Midnight,” Burt Bacharach’s “Alfie” and Jimmy Van Heusen’s gorgeous ballad “But Beautiful.” You can hear a touch of the Chet Atkins bounce on “Lullaby of Birdland,” a jazz standard composed by another of Klugh’s early mentors, the great British pianist-composer George jazziz october 2013 31

Five Good Klughs Earl Klugh set the template for smooth jazz with his pleasant recordings throughout the ’70s. Four decades later, he’s still cranking out soothing sounds. Of his 30 releases, these five are especially outstanding. —BM s Finger Paintings (Blue Note, 1978) — This is the album that introduced two popular smooth groove tunes, “Dr. Macumba” and “Cabo Frio,” which the guitarist still includes in his set list today. Also included is an instrumental cover of Orleans’ soft-rock hit “Dance With Me” and a full-band version of Klugh’s lovely “This Time,” which he reprises as a solo piece on Hand Picked. s Late Night Guitar (Blue Note, 1980) — Klugh’s nylon-string guitar is surrounded by a full orchestra on several pieces on this easy-listening set, including lush treatments of “Mona Lisa” and “I’ll Never Say Goodbye.” But the real gems here are his beautiful, unaccompanied renditions of “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes,” “Laura” and “Tenderly,” which hint at solo outings to come. s Two of a Kind (Blue Note/Manhattan, 1982) — The second encounter between Klugh and pianist Bob James (a follow-up to 1979’s One on One) is grounded by drummer Harvey Mason, and includes such buoyant numbers as Klugh’s “Where I Wander” and Mason’s upbeat “Whiplash.” s Collaboration (Warner Bros., 1987) — Pupil and teacher team up on this Tommy LiPuma-produced smooth funk-jazz offering that pairs Klugh’s finger-style acoustic with George Benson’s astonishingly fluid guitar lines and wordless vocals. The rhythm tandem of drummer Harvey Mason and bassist Marcus Miller keeps everything in the pocket here while the two principals fly. s Naked Guitar (Koch, 2005) — Klugh’s second solo-guitar outing, a Grammy-winner, includes eloquent readings of “The Summer Knows,” “All the Things You Are” and “Moon River,” as well as a lovely bossa nova rendition of The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

Shearing, who took the 21-year-old guitarist on his first European tour in 1974. There’s also a stirring treatment of Vince Guaraldi’s 1963 instrumental hit “Cast Your Fate to the Wind,” which, interestingly enough, was included as a solo piece on It’s a Guitar World, the first Atkins album that Klugh bought, back in 1967. Elsewhere on the album, Klugh engages in intimate duets with special guests Bill Frisell (“Blue Moon”), Vince Gill (an intimate take on The Everly Brothers’ hit “All I Have to Do Is Dream”) and ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro (a scintillating version of The Eagles’ “Hotel California”). As the album title suggests, all of the guests were hand-picked. “I’ve known Bill for some years now,” Klugh says. “We did a ‘Night of Guitars’ show together with guitarist Russell Malone at The Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild in Pittsburgh in 2007, and we had such a great time. I think we prepared about 26 or 27 tunes for that gig, and ‘Blue Moon’ was one that I remember sounding really good. I felt a very close affinity with Bill that evening. He’s one of a kind — a great player, a great person and a 32 october 2013 jazziz

really wide-open musician. And when I discovered that he only had a very narrow window of opportunity to record for this project, I flew to Seattle to meet him, and we ended up recording in Portland. I wanted to make it comfortable for everybody on these duet pieces, so I ended up going to where they lived. So with Jake, whom I had met on a boat cruise some years ago, we recorded in Los Angeles. And with Gill, who I met at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festival in 2010, I flew to Nashville to record at his home studio.” Klugh adds that the Gill session was especially resonant. “Vince and I are both huge fans of Chet Atkins,” he explains. “We have both played with him and admired him so much. But what I didn’t know until later on is that Chet actually played on the original Everly Brothers version of ‘All I Have to Do Is Dream.’ That really brought everything full circle, and I was so delighted to hear Vince sing on the last part of the tune. That was a big surprise.” Both Gill and Klugh appeared again at Clapton’s most recent Crossroads Festival, held this past April at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. Klugh says that his connection to Clapton dates to 1986, when they met in Tokyo. “Back in those days I had a very big career in Japan. My band had a three-week engagement at one of the big clubs in Tokyo, and as we were checking in at the hotel to get everything settled with the rooms and everything, I happened to notice Eric Clapton standing there in the lobby. And he came right up to me and said, ‘Excuse me, but are you Earl Klugh?’ He asked where I was playing, and when I told him about this gig we had for the next three weeks, he said, ‘That’s great! I’m going to start bringing my band down there. That’s what we like to do after the show. We go watch music.’ Eric’s band had a week or so at a major arena in Tokyo, and when they were done with their show they would come down and catch our last set. So we got to know each other pretty well back then, and we’ve remained in touch over the years. Now his Crossroads Festival is a chance for us to get together.” When we spoke on the phone the week after his Blue Note engagement in New York, Klugh was preparing for his own upcoming festival, the fourth annual Weekend of Jazz, set to take place in early November at the Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina. Guests this year include Al Jarreau, Burt Bacharach, Euge Groove and Spyro Gyra. Klugh will perform solo pieces from Hand Picked at the festival and also appear with his working band: saxophonist Tom Braxton, keyboardist David Lee, bassist Al Carter and drummer Brian Otis. In April, Klugh will appear at another festival he runs, the annual Weekend of Jazz at the Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs. Klugh says he’s excited about playing in Colorado Springs because there he’ll perform in a duet setting with jazz singer Nneena Freelon. “Over the last couple of years, I’ve probably done four or five shows with Nneena, just guitar and voice,” he says. “I always like to do that because it’s challenging. A lot of times when you have a really good singer like that, it kind of takes you into some other places. When you’re playing with a rhythm section, it’s kind of standard fare. But she’s such a great singer that you can go almost anywhere and she never slips up. I enjoy that kind of spontaneity.” Removed from the stereotypical conventions of smooth jazz — whether solo, duo or with a full band — Klugh’s nylon-string virtuosity continues to shine through with warmth and soul. s

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The only drum solo on Gadditude (BFM Jazz), Steve Gadd’s first studio leader date in a quarter-century, occurs at the six-minute mark of the album opener, “Africa,” a smoky modal number. Actually, Gadd doesn’t so much solo as emerge from the ensemble in dialogue with Larry Goldings’ percussive vamp on Hammond B-3, intensifying, but barely embellishing, the crisp, swirling 7/4 groove that has heretofore propelled the flow. For the remainder of the session, Gadd draws from his exhaustive lexicon of beats — New Orleans march figures, tangos, shuffles, waltzes, straighteighth feels and a touch of 4/4 swing — to personalize nine songs either composed or brought in by Goldings, trumpeter Walt Fowler, bassist Jimmy Johnson and guitarist Michael Landau, all of whom appear on the album and all of whom Gadd has played with during the past decade in James Taylor’s working band. “I didn’t do it intentionally or think about it beforehand,” Gadd says of animating his of own session by assuming a supportive role, as has famously been his default basis of operations since becoming a fixture in the New York City studios in the early ’70s. “I think a drummer’s goal is to allow other people to sound their best, to have space to shine and create. Some situations favor an energetic approach, interacting more with the solos. Other times, people are playing over the groove, and it’s better to stay out of the way. For me, the better solos happen when the groove gets strong and the intensity is where it should be. Then it feels natural.” As the album’s producer, Gadd opted to not position the drums prominently in the final mix. “I want the mixes to sound dynamic and balanced, so you can feel our intent, not to get everything so 38 october 2013 jazziz

in your face that it highlights what I’m doing,” he explains. “If I’m playing soft, I’d rather you hear it soft and place everything around it. Then the music is speaking, not just one instrument.” Gadd has actualized these aesthetic principles with extraordinary consistency on the 750 sessions — some 230 of them during the ’70s — listed on his web discography. During that decade, his ingenious figures stamped hits by such pop icons as Paul Simon (“50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”) and Steely Dan (Aja). His inexorable pocket was integral to the feel of the jazz-funk supergroup Stuff, and his explosive straighahead skills were displayed with a succession of high-profile jazz and fusion acts — Steps, with Michael Brecker and Mike Mainieri; Chick Corea (The Leprechaun and My Spanish Heart); the Brecker Brothers (Don’t Stop the Music) — and on several dozen CTI dates. During the ’80s, Gadd, already a key influence for a generation of aspirants, performed on over 150 recordings. He toured extensively, both as a high-profile sideman and as leader of the Gadd Gang, with former Stuff bandmates Cornell Dupree and Richard Tee and with acoustic bassist Eddie Gomez. He began playing with Taylor in the early ’90s. Later in the decade he toured and recorded with Eric Clapton and spent consequential bandstand time in a short-lived, gloriously creative trio with the French pianist Michel Petrucciani and bassist Anthony Jackson. “I admire musicians who constantly try to raise the bar for themselves,” says Gadd, whose latest work as a producer and musician includes If You Believe, his second eclectic, erudite collaboration with marimbist Mika Stoltzman; an as-yet untitled encounter with conguero Pedrito Martinez that is scheduled for a late 2013

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The Good Life

In Paul Simon’s excellent film, One Trick Pony, which was released in 1980, Steve Gadd plays Danny Duggin, a harddrinking, pot-smoking, cocaine-snorting, wisecracking, badass drummer. He’s acting, and acting well, but the character reflects his lived experience. “Those were the party years,” Gadd says of the ’70s and ’80s. “Before the shit hit the fan and everyone went over the top with it, we had a ball. We didn’t know you could get addicted to this stuff. When I first started getting high, it was like I was trying to stay awake so I could play with these different people I’d always wanted to play with. Then at some point it got dark. I went from using so I could work with these people to working to use, and I didn’t even know when it changed. It got more about the drugs than it did about the music.” Now “in recovery” for about two decades, Gadd opines that his sobriety is apparent in both his playing and his state of mind. “I did things then that I can’t even remember doing,” he says. “The things that I’m doing now are more a part of my life because I feel like I’m there for them. I’m not totally numbed-out.” Part of the routine that Gadd adopted after getting sober in his 40s is regular exercise. At the beginning, he spent a lot of time in the gym, doing both resistance and cardio training. But now, especially when on the road, he concentrates on cardio. “I prefer getting out of the room and jogging rather than going into another small room in the hotel and using machines,” he says. “It’s nice to be outside and get some air. The resistance is important, but I don’t do as much weights now as I used to. If I had time, I would. “Playing big venues with loud bands is a workout. You have to be in shape. The only way to really be ready for a gig like that, endurance-wise, is to exercise. You can’t practice full-out for two-and-a-half hours. But if you run for 30 or 45 minutes or an hour, it helps you stay fit for that situation. Walking my dogs is also good exercise.” At 68, Gadd anticipates playing at a high level into his 80s. “You have to realize that your body isn’t made of steel, and you’ve got to eat for fuel, not necessarily just things that taste good,” he says. “That can lengthen your quality of life. It could affect how you play, too. We get old, but the body is pretty resilient. It responds when you take care of it. How you treat people, how you enjoy yourself, how you play music — how you do everything — is all connected.” —TP

release; and the third recording in three years by the Gaddabouts, a Gadd-directed backup band for singer-songwriter Edie Brickell. Less omnipresent in the studios than before, he recently augmented his c.v. on dates with Clapton, Italian pop singer Pino Daniele, and Kate Bush. When we spoke in late August, Gadd was preparing for shows in Japan and California with Quartette Humaine, a band co-led by Bob James and David Sanborn — on whose recent release Gadd played — and with his own Steve Gadd Band, booked for post40 october 2013 jazziz

Gadditude appearances in Korea, Japan and California. “I don’t think of it as my band,” Gadd says of his latest leader endeavor. “Of course I put it together, and I’m in a position to make suggestions and some final decisions. But it’s always a group. People brought in tunes, and I picked the ones that I liked best and thought we could have fun playing. Then we worked them out by trial and error.” Gadd’s assertion to the contrary, he has, as Goldings notes, “a very convincing way of putting his own spin on something.” As an example, the keyboardist mentions Gadd’s treatment of Keith Jarrett’s “Country,” a ballad first recorded by Jarrett’s “European Quartet” in 1978. “Steve likes to experiment with time signatures and feels, and after a day of playing sort of as-is, in 4/4, he suggested we try it in three,” Goldings recalls. “He didn’t know the song, wasn’t tied down to it, and wanted to do something different.” Goldings describes another typical Gaddian turnabout, this one occurring during a 2008 recording date for James Taylor’s Covers. “One song we’d played for years had an iconic drumbeat, a heavy tom-tom thing, and we listened back to the live version. But when we started going for takes, Steve immediately went for his brushes, almost the opposite thing, done beautifully, in this understated way. Nobody said a thing. It just worked. … I think he has a sound in his head, and he knows how to create it instantaneously. It’s one of the mysterious things about him.”

Gadd’s biography — documented in dozens of articles and hundreds of YouTube videos — is well-known. A native of Rochester, New York, he’s held drumsticks literally since he learned to speak. By age 7, the year he received his first drum set, he was tap dancing publicly. While Gadd was still in grammar school, his father, a drug salesman, and uncle, a semi-professional drummer who taught him the rudiments, brought him to Sunday matinees at the Ridgecrest Inn, a small club that hosted Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Max Roach, Oscar Peterson, Carmen McRae and others as they traversed the northeast circuit. “You could sit next to the bandstand and watch them play,” says Gadd, who also recalls the frequent presence of childhood friends Chuck and Gap Mangione. “Sometimes they’d let the kids sit in. When I was in high school, there were organ clubs that booked Jack McDuff, Groove Holmes, George Benson and Hank Marr. You could sit in with them. I loved that music. All this time, I was taking lessons, doing drum corps, playing with the high-school concert band and stage band.” In 1963, Gadd enrolled at Manhattan School of Music. After two years, he transferred to Rochester’s Eastman Conservatory. “Eastman had more orchestras and wind ensembles, so I had more playing opportunities,” he recalls. “In Rochester, I started working six nights a week with different bands so I could support myself through college.” Upon graduation, Gadd, hoping to avoid combat duty in Vietnam, auditioned for and was accepted in the Army Field Band at Fort Meade, Maryland, where he spent the next three years, the final two of them propelling a Woody Herman-Buddy Rich-styled big band. “There were great writers who wrote new arrangements every week for us to sight read,” he recalls. “I couldn’t have gotten that kind of education anywhere else.”

Gadd’s blend of formal education and practical experience helps to explain his ability to elicit maximum results with a minimum of flash and make a newly encountered piece of music sound like he’s been playing it for years. “I came to New York having fun playing different styles of music,” Gadd says. “I loved the kind of playing Tony Williams and Jack DeJohnette did, but in New York I heard Rick Marotta, who played simple but with a really deep groove. I didn’t understand that kind of simplicity, but it challenged me. So I worked just as hard at playing simple as playing complicated and playing fusion. Different people were typecast as funk drummers, Latin guys, jazz guys. But I didn’t like categories. As long as it was good music, I loved it.” “I feel Steve came a lot out of Elvin [Jones] and applied it to fusion,” says modern-day drum avatar Eric Harland. “It isn’t so much about chops but the feel of the drums — solid, like earth.” Harland references a YouTube video of a “drum battle” between Gadd, Dave Weckl and Vinnie Colaiuta that concluded a 1989 Buddy Rich memorial concert. “Chops-wise, Steve couldn’t compete with Dave and Vinnie. They get around the drums like water. But when Steve comes in, he lays down a groove that you swear you can hear people start screaming. It was so moving, he didn’t need to play anything else. That comes from within, like some samurai kung-fu shit, where you break the laws, not with your body but your mind. In his minimalism, you get the same feeling as if you’re watching a drummer do everything humanly possible. That’s what I think amazes us. How did he make that feel like I’m listening to Trane playing all the baddest shit or Tony Williams playing the most incredible things, all over the drums?” “Steve is all about the time,” says James Genus, fresh from playing

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bass alongside Gadd nightly while touring with Quartette Humaine. He describes Gadd’s feel as “in the middle or slightly behind the beat, depending on what the music calls for. He can play with a click track and make it swing — precise, but not rigid, with a human, natural quality.” Sanborn elaborates on the observation: “At a turnaround or some other point in a tune, he’ll speed it up or slow it down a bit, just to make it breathe. But he never loses the pulse of where the click is.” “Steve seems into understatement more than ever,” Goldings says, and the drummer agrees. “I probably played busier when I was younger,” Gadd says. “My goal was to give whoever hired me what they wanted, so I’d get called back. I’d try busier fills — sometimes they’d like it, sometimes it was too much. But it wasn’t about ego. It was about trying to make the thing as good as it could be. It’s challenging and fun to not just go up there and play everything you know, but leave some room.” Reflecting on their 39-year professional relationship, which began with the 1974 CTI date One, Bob James observes that Gadd’s approach has remained remarkably consistent. “Steve is a virtuoso player, but he keeps his playing simple. To me, the virtuosity comes across more in the fact that he plays every note just in the right place, the right pocket.” As an example, James cites “Follow Me,” from Quartette Humaine, on which Gadd keeps “the freight train rolling through the different time signatures that appear in practically every measure, making the rest of us feel as comfortable as it would have felt in 4/4 time.” James also recalls Gadd’s legerdemain on a “repetitive, modal, atmospheric” number called “The River Returns,” on the keyboard-

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ist’s 1997 album Playin’ Hooky. “He played one of his classic brush beats that seemed to make everybody play better,” James says. “It felt great, but I couldn’t figure it out until I listened to the drum track during post-production and looked at the console needle that shows volume levels. Slowly, imperceptibly, over five minutes, it became louder and more intense. You could have made an amazing graph of its crescendo.” Gadd’s dynamic control in live performance fascinates Sanborn, who points to the peculiar bandstand sensation of “knowing that Steve is hitting hard, but never feeling that the drums are too loud — in fact, sometimes the opposite. He has an uncanny ability to blend the sound of his drums with the group. He always does that unexpected thing that you never saw coming, always knows where he is and what to do. You never feel he’s showboating.” “I’m always aware of dynamics and space,” Gadd says. “It’s not fun for me to start out at level 10 and stay there. It affects my endurance. It affects the creativity. Without dynamics, you give up the element of surprise. Starting simply gives you someplace to go — you can explode, then get soft again. Using space can make the notes that you play more interesting.” When playing live, Gadd adds, he tries “to reach an agreement with the sound guys to keep a balance in the monitors so that other people on the bandstand can hear you when you’re playing soft.” He continues: “When you feel you’re not being heard, the tendency is to play loud, and the music goes right out the window. When guys who can play can hear each other, the magic can take over. The more you trust the sound, the more chances you take, and it can evolve into something a little different every night. Of course some music is meant to be played hard, at a louder volume, where you can get away with just a strong backbeat. It’s all about communicating, and understanding where you want to go with the music. You can’t give up on it. You’ve got to keep always trying.” If a musician’s sound mirrors their personality, then Gadd’s results-oriented, team-first approach is of a piece with Goldings’ assessment that he is “very down to earth.” “Steve is one of the great joke-tellers, and he puts a fantastic amount of detail and personality into telling them,” Goldings says. “Perhaps that’s consistent with the amount of subtle detail in his playing. He’s also very warm, and sensitive to your moods. I had some personal things happen on the road, and every other day or so he’d ask me how things were going. I really appreciated that he wasn’t afraid of going there. He kind of cuts through the bullshit.” Indeed, Gadd showed similar concern for me when I called him an hour before our scheduled interview to ask if we could push back our conversation so that I could rush my just-injured cat to the vet. He immediately assured me that he was available all day and urged me to take my time. “You’ve got to take care of your animals,” he said, noting that he himself “likes to hang out” with his five dogs: two English bulldogs, a 90-pound American bulldog-pit bull mix, a Yorkshire and a Morky (part Maltese, part-Yorkshire). “Man, I love those guys,” he said. Five hours later, at the conclusion of our discussion, Gadd said, “I’d like you to call me and tell me how your cat is.” Is it a stretch to extrapolate Gadd’s empathetic reflex to his bandstand comportment? Perhaps. But it certainly doesn’t hurt. s

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Auditions Paolo Fresu Devil Quartet Desertico (Otá) Italy has produced an impressive crop of young jazz trumpeters in recent years, among them Fabrizio Bosso, Dominick Farinacci and Paolo Fresu. All can shift easily from one music idiom to the next, tapping the essence of everything from Euro-style acid jazz to Chet Baker-informed balladry along the way. On Desertico, Fresu and his Devil Quartet project a wide range of moods on an 11-track program that slowly but surely captures the listener’s attention via evocative slow- and medium-tempo themes and structurally complex arrangements. The set’s two non-originals, The Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” and the 1930s standard “Blame It On My Youth,” demonstrate the quartet’s versatility. “Satisfaction,” a surprising addition to a program that focuses mostly on lyrical playing and understated rhythmic settings, allows the quartet to confirm its pop credentials via Fresu’s processed effects and the rhythm section’s ferocious attack. In contrast, “Blame It On My Youth” — on which Fresu opts for a frosty, muted sound — is rendered in a relaxed, reverential fashion that underscores the group’s mainstream jazz capabilities. The rest of the program falls somewhere between these two stylistic extremes. Throughout, guitarist Bebo Ferra demonstrates his strength as both an accompanist and a lead voice. His solo on “La Follia Italiana,” which begins as a lithesome ballad before evolving into a rhythmically hotwired masterwork, is one of the date’s most memorable. Bassist Paolino Dalla Porta and drummer Stefano Bagnoli stand out as well. Dalla Porta’s Afro-Caribbean, tumbao-style ostinato lines propel many of the tracks while Bagnoli balances crisp, minimalistic 48 october 2013 jazziz

percussive accents with occasional bombastic surges. With Fresu’s elegant, crystalline tone leading the way, the Devil Quartet mines a range of sonic emotions. On the whole, the performances radiate an inherently joyous spirit that underscores the trio’s success in achieving an original and highly inviting group sound. —Mark Holston Jim Black Antiheroes (Winter & Winter) When approaching albums by drummer-led ensembles, most of us reflexively assume the result will be dominated by rhythms, with melody and harmonics placed in secondary positions. But that’s definitely not the case with Antiheroes, the latest from Jim Black and his whimsically dubbed band AlasNoAxis. Black’s beats establish a foundation, but these eight numbers are fully realized offerings that are more about patient, vivid exploration than relentless forward motion. Black clearly has tremendous confidence in his AlasNoAxis mates: saxophonist/ longtime cohort Chris Speed, plus the Icelandic twosome of guitarist Hilmar Jensson and bassist Skúli Sverrisson (both of whom likely felt very much at home while cutting these tunes in a swimming-poolturned-studio on the outskirts of Reykjavik, Iceland). As evidence, consider “Antihero,” the elegiac opener. The piece begins with the gentlest of plucking by Jensson and Sverrisson, enhanced by Speed’s sympathetic echoing. In the meantime, Black provides the subtlest support imaginable, waiting nearly two full minutes before producing anything even resembling a backbeat. But by lying back, he allows the piece to ripen into a gorgeous and moving evocation. There’s more drive at the heart of “Super

K’s” — appropriate given that it’s dedicated to Kazu Makino, singer for the indie-rock combo Blonde Redhead. Still, the tom-heavy, distortion-friendly, stratosphere-scraping momentum established by the players retains shape and substance. The same is true of “Marguay,” arguably the most aggressive song here (Sverrisson’s burbling at its midpoint is particularly thrilling), and “Square Pegs,” which is characterized by lurching shifts in dynamics. Yet the more deliberate efforts — the witty, noirish “Tockle,” the undulating “Much Better Now,” the strangely episodic “Meowchless” — linger the longest, covering so much territory that they encourage a listener to get totally, gloriously lost. As a bandleader, Black puts the whole before the individual, and his selflessness pays dividends, turning Antiheroes into a triumph of upended expectations. —Michael Roberts Oliver Jones, featuring Josée Aidans Just for My Lady (Justin Time) Pairings of jazz and classical musicians — pianist Claude Bolling and flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal, guitarist Bill Frisell and soprano Renée Fleming, for instance — have produced memorable recordings over the years. Such is the case with pianist Oliver Jones and violinist Josée Aidans. Jones, 79, who comes from the same geographic and musical place as Oscar Peterson, was honored earlier this year when his visage appeared on a Canadian postage stamp. Aidans, a fellow Canadian, is a classicallytrained, non-improvising pop violinist who spent several years accompanying singer-songwriter Claude Dubois. In typical Jones fashion, Just for My Lady, the pianist’s 29th release on Justin Time Records, swings from the rafters, with Photo by Roberto Chiovitti

Paolo Fresu

strong support from bassist Eric Lagacé and and pianist extraordinaire Jones, jazz is drummer Jim Doxas. Atypical is the incluevery bit as close to perfection as it needs sion of Aidans, whose silky tone and jaunty, to be. —James Rozzi light touch evoke memories of violin luminaries Stéphane Grapelli, Stuff Smith and Alex Sipiagin Johnny Frigo. With all of her “improvised” From Reality and Back solos hand-written by Jones, Aidans sounds (5Passion) like a bona-fide jazz musician. Her pop The latest studio recording by Alex Sipiagin leanings have helped her perfect certain offers good news, bad techniques inherent to jazz violin, perhaps news and better news. best described by Stuff Smith himself: “You The good? For can slur like a trombone, play staccato like a From Reality and trumpet or moan like a tenor.” Back, the trumpeter/ With a repertoire comprised mostly composer has atof Jones originals (his three-part “The tracted absolutely Saskatchewan Suite” is a highlight) and stellar accompanists. standards (“Lady Be Good” remains the esThe bad? Given the presence of big names sential tour de force for jazz violinists), Jones, such as bassist Dave Holland, pianist Gonzalo Aidans and company produce a lengthy Rubalcaba (the man behind the 5Passion and joyous set, indeed. Their medium and imprint) and, by way of a tune written specifiuptempo swing numbers are charming, cally for the project, guitarist Pat Metheny, their ballads beautiful. many listeners may be less interested in the Jazz has been described as “the imper- leader than in the supporting cast. MAC1076 MASB Horizontal Jazziz ad_02.pdf 8/19/13 2:52:16 PM fect art.” But in the hands of bandleader The better? Sipiagin manages not only

to keep pace with his more prominent contemporaries, but he’s able to hold center stage in their presence, enhancing his own stature in the process. Of course, Sipiagin is hardly a novice. He’s recorded more than a dozen albums as a leader and played alongside jazz icons (Michael Brecker) and pop legends (Eric Clapton). Those experiences serve him well on what’s arguably his highest-profile effort to date. Examples abound. “Around the Bend” may feature gorgeously simpatico rhythms courtesy of Holland and drummer Antonio Sanchez, but it soars thanks to the contrast between Sipiagin’s rich soloing and the spikier lines of tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake. “With the Tide” finds Sipiagin building on thrillingly exploratory Rubalcaba passages, while the contrapuntal intricacies of “End Of…” show off Sipiagin’s structural verve and his way with a hotter tempo. And “Chain Reaction” earns its moniker thanks to a brassy riff that ratchets up the velocity all the way to, and through, the finish line.

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Mack Avenue Records is proud to present the scintillating debut release by its very own SuperBand, an all-star ensemble comprising many of the label’s most acclaimed artists. Recorded live at the 2012 Detroit Jazz Festival, it documents the SuperBand’s debut performance. The SuperBand is Gary Burton, Kevin Eubanks, Tia Fuller, Sean Jones, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Evan Perri and Alfredo Rodríguez—all supported solidly by the rhythm section of Carl Allen, Aaron Diehl and Rodney Whitaker.

mackavenue.com

50 october 2013 jazziz

available wherever you like to buy music

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“Son, Uvedeny Posle (Dream Seen Later),” from Metheny’s pen, is, in some ways, a modest endeavor compared to Sipiagin’s compositions. But the simplicity of its melody draws out the trumpeter’s finest solo — one that’s beautifully balanced, ripe without bursting. This is an album that will make Sipiagin’s name a lot easier to remember next time around. And that’s the best news of all. —Michael Roberts Wadada Leo Smith & TUMO Occupy the World (TUM) Trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith’s previous record was a stunning four-disc, four-and-a-half-hour tribute to various milestones and heroes of the civil rights movement. Though his latest effort — a collaboration with the 21-member Nordic improvising collective TUMO — has no unifying theme and stretches over merely two discs, Smith’s work is no less intense and inspiring. Smith’s blend of free jazz and contemporary classical music unfolds in chapters. “Crossing On a Southern Road,” dedicated to the late saxophonist and Smith’s close friend Marion Brown, suggests a journey that’s nostalgic, bittersweet and more than a little treacherous. “Occupy the World for Life, Liberty and Justice,” inspired by the worldwide Occupy movement protests that began in 2011, is by turns somber and celebratory, contemplative and bombastic. Smith injects surprising juxtapositions into his arrangements. Dissonant strings and horns glow underneath a swinging rhythm on “Mount Kilimanjaro”; electric guitars provide a spiky edge to “Crossing On a Southern Road.” And for all the complexity, Smith makes great use of silence. Along with providing relief from so much tension, those empty spaces allow soloists or the entire ensemble to begin building to another climax. Smith himself takes advantage of these interstices to craft beautiful, yearning solos on “The Bell – 2” and “Occupy the World.” Like all of Smith’s best work, this outing is dense, challenging and utterly profound. Just sit back and revel in his genius. —John Frederick Moore 52 october 2013 jazziz

Wadada Leo Smith

Chick Corea The Vigil (Concord Jazz) The Vigil is the latest title in 72-year-old keyboardist Chick Corea’s extensive discography. It’s also the name of his latest band, a collective of mostly far younger musicians that on this record includes bassist Hadrien Feraud, drummer Marcus Gilmore, saxophonist/flutist/bass clarinetist Tim Garland, guitarist Charles Altura, percussionist Pernell Saturnino and Corea’s wife, vocalist Gayle Moran Corea. Periodically, Corea’s restless spirit seems to demand that he surround himself with younger players to help him remain on the cutting edge of jazz. Even so, it’s been years since he had a stable band of youngsters to interpret his high-intensity compositions. On The Vigil, both they and a couple guests rise to the challenge with aplomb. Many songs, including the opening “Galaxy 32 Star 4,” contain blistering unison lines that hearken back to Corea’s work in the early 1970s with Return to

Forever. In addition to the rock grooves, disparate and effective Afro-Cuban grooves permeate much of the repertoire. As with nearly all of Corea’s music — from solo piano pieces to large orchestral works — the mechanics are always front and center, at times causing a yearning for more subtle moments. Still, The Vigil is a well-balanced program of seven cuts, including the beautifully flowing waltz “Royalty” and the lovely bossa number “Outside of Space” (featuring Gayle Moran Corea’s lone appearance on the album). The 18-minute “Pledge for Peace” is a live acoustic tribute to the prayerful endeavors of John Coltrane, appropriately spotlighting guests Ravi Coltrane on tenor saxophone and longtime Corea collaborator Stanley Clarke on upright bass. At times during the proceedings, Corea nods to fusion bands Weather Report and The Yellowjackets. His inclusion of Garland’s forward-leaning playing adds an earnest jazz feel to what largely seems like a Return to Forever update. Yet, as always, Corea’s compositions maintain a distinct sense of theatrical bravado, incorporating the intricate dramatic flourishes that have become his hallmark. —James Rozzi Photo by Maarit Kytöharju

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