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Trombonist Steve Davis Pays Tribute to Early Idol in Celebration in Old Lyme

Bill Morgan
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Creative Commons
Trombonist Steve Davis
Along with fluent solos and flowing charts, there's a tight, palpably empathetic bond among the six players.

When J.J. Johnson, “the father of the modern jazz trombone,” first heard trombonist Steve Davis playing with the Jackie McLean Sextet some years ago at a jazz festival in Brazil, the great brass master had the highest praise for young Davis, then a rising musician who had idolized the jazz legend for years.

Running into McLean and Davis in the concert hall lobby, Johnson said to McLean, Davis’s boss and mentor, that when he walked into the theater the night before,  he heard Davis playing a solo graced with “a tremendous warm sound and clean, clear articulation and  sophisticated ideas.”

Turning to Davis, who had been apprehensive about playing in front of his longtime hero, the Old Master trombonist said, “Yeah, Stevie, you’re right on track, baby. Keep it up. You sound beautiful, baby. Keep it up.”

Steve Davis.
Credit The Hartt School
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The Hartt School
Steve Davis.

Davis, now himself a celebrated trombonist, composer, educator, bandleader, and much sought-after sideman, has followed that advice with both deep devotion and great success, always, in the inspiring words of the godlike J.J., staying right on track and sounding beautiful.

Recalling that ringing seal of approval in the liner notes for his new album, Say When (Smoke Sessions Records) -- a splendid tribute to J.J. -- Davis said, “It was kind of like getting my passport stamped, you know? It just meant the world to me.”

Paying homage to Johnson is a project that, Davis says, had been brewing in his mind for 20 years before he and his all-star sextet made this just-released recording, which features six Johnson originals, two American Songbook standards, as well as individual compositions by Harold Mabern and John Coltrane, plus one totally surprising and delightful grand finale.

Virtually assuring a tribute graced with both proper respect for the past and a fresh, original outlook for the future, Davis assembled a first-rate band of individually strong collaborators -- old comrades-in-arms who have worked together often. Along with fluent solos and flowing charts, there’s a tight, palpably empathetic bond among the six players. That hard-to-find mix of vibrant talent and vital esprit de corps makes Davis’s band sound like a sleek, almost sinfully synergetic swing machine, one that J. J. Johnson himself would, no doubt, have loved to play with.

Davis is the consummate instrumentalist, whether he's playing swift, clean lines, or warm, expressive phrases.

Davis, who has become a premier trombonist just as the prescient Johnson had predicted back then in Brazil, is joined by trumpeter Eddie Henderson and  tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander on a fine frontline, powered by a no less prestigious rhythm section featuring pianist Harold Mabern, bassist Nat Reeves and drummer Joe Farnsworth.

Right from the opener, a Johnson piece called "Pinnacles," the sextet plays at a championship major league level, with Davis, batting in the leadoff solo position, immediately knocking one out of the park. Keeping the mood cooking, Alexander, another power hitter, displays his swinging, supple big league sound in a solo graced with agility, freshness and a few Coltrane-like flutters.

Next at bat is Henderson’s stream of cool, rational phrases, followed by a power surge unleashed by the two-fisted Mabern. A steely-fingered piano man, Mabern loves to make a concert grand rock with his fusillades of skittering notes, barrages of crashing chords and thundering tremolos that escalate the tension to dramatic dynamic levels. Reeves and Farnsworth, both of whom also get solo space in which to shine, stoke the fires here and throughout.

J.J. Johnson.
Credit Public Domain
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Public Domain
J.J. Johnson.

Playing Johnson originals like "Lament," "Shutterbug," "Say When," and "Shortcake," or interpreting Cole Porter or John Coltrane, Davis is the consummate instrumentalist. And it doesn’t matter whether he’s playing swift, clean lines or warm, expressive phrases that, for example, put an extra spring of life into "There Will Never Be Another You," a favorite jazz standard played here as a ballad.  

In a bit of a surprise, the grand finale is a romp through "When the Saints Go Marching In" -- a modern jazz take on the ancient jazz warhorse, complete with a smart chart, celebratory feeling, Davis’s use of a bucket mute, and a tasty sampler of Farnsworth’s worthy drumming.

Credit Smoke Session Records
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Smoke Session Records

With all its genuine heat and fire, Say When is a bona fide smoker for Smoke Sessions Records. Its official release date is June 9.

Davis starts celebrating the CD’s release with a performance by his band in Connecticut at 8:30 pm on Thursday, June 4, at The Side Door Jazz Club, 85 Lyme Street, Old Lyme. Davis, Alexander, Mabern and Reeves are joined by trumpeter Josh Bruneau and drummer Jason Tiemann.Information: thesidedoorjazz.com and (860) 434-0886.

The party continues as Davis and his band trek to uptown Manhattan where they’ll celebrate Say When with performances on Friday, June 5, through Sunday, June 7, at Smoke Jazz Club, the noted jazz spot at 2751 Broadway, a few blocks south of Columbia University.

Davis, who’s a professor at The Hartt School’s Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the University of Hartford, has played some of the pieces on his new CD at previous performances at Smoke, a Big Apple club that even has its own classy, highly productive jazz label. Club information: smokejazz.com and (212) 864-6662. Label information:smokesessionsrecords.com.

Cutting-Edge Mega-Spectacle at RAW

Jason Belcher.
Credit Courtesy Improvisations/Stephen Haynes
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Courtesy Improvisations/Stephen Haynes
Jason Belcher.

Cornetist Stephen Haynes and bassist/guitarist Joe Morris, curators of the bold Improvisations series at Hartford’s Real Art Ways (RAW) flex their mighty musical biceps as they once again present Spectacle -- the second annual cutting-edge jazz extravaganza that serves as the celebratory culmination of the 2014-2015 season for their much-praised homage to spontaneous invention.   

Featuring a varied, cross-generational, all-star lineup of improvising avant-garde artists, Spectacle II-Improvisational Music Festival runs from 4:00 to 7:00 pm on Sunday, June 7, in a cozy chamber music setting at RAW, 56 Arbor Street. Seating is often in the three-quarter round, heightening the intimacy of the music, which is primarily acoustic.

Haynes and Morris are not only the series curators, but, as instrumentalists and composers, are also active practitioners of the art itself. As part of Improvisations’ extemporaneous vibe, the curators perform right alongside their distinguished guest artists at the monthly sessions of Improvisations. Their hand-picked guests have included noted international figures who, quite often, are making their first Connecticut appearance at RAW.

Haynes and Morris are also committed to identifying and presenting young and emerging artists and providing an often hard to come by platform for them to develop and share their work.

Since 2011, some 34 artists have visited RAW to perform in the series. The music, which is created on-the-spot and free from pre-planning and rehearsal, is complemented by an open-ended Q&A, with audience members invited to engage directly in conversation with the performers.

Besides Haynes and Morris, the lineup for the mega-fest features: Allan Chase, saxophones; Andrea Parkins, accordion; Jerome Deupree, drums and percussion.

Also, Fay Victor, voice; Adam Matlock, accordion; Junko Fujiwara, cello; Zachary Rowden, bass; Minta White, flute; Sam Lisabeth, guitar; Will Bridges, alto saxophone; Travis Bliss, tenor saxophone; Jaimie Branch, trumpet; and Jason Belcher, baritone horn.

Credit Michael Weintrob
Vocalist Fay Victor.

After mixing and matching improvisers in various configurations, maestros Haynes and Morris will convene the Abstract Forest Orchestra, an improvising ensemble. Following the series of compact, swift-thinking swat teams of free jazz improvisers, the performance ends not with a whimper but a bang provided by the entire contingent of artists uniting to create in the abstract, super band setting. 

Haynes and Morris guarantee that the only thing you can expect at their humongous homage to improvisation is the unexpected. They hope that listeners will “come early and stay late, listen to and speak with the performing artists.”

RAW, a longtime catalytic cultural force in Hartford, the region and beyond, is the ideal nurturing nest and friendly home base and launching pad for Haynes’ and Morris’ high-flying project. Admission: $15.00, general; $12.00, RAW members; $5.00, students. Information:realartways.org and (860) 232-1006.

Mahanthappa’s Inventive Bird Calls

Perhaps the jewel in the crown of Firehouse 12’s  2015 Spring Jazz Series, the great Indian-American alto saxophonist/composer Rudresh Mahanthappa brings his celebration of Charlie “Bird” Parker’s “legacy of timeless innovation” to New Haven. He leads his quintet at 8:30 and 10:00 pm on Friday, June 5, at Firehouse 12, 45 Crown Street.

The brilliant innovator is on the road promoting his new CD, Bird Calls, a groundbreaking album dedicated to his fresh, deconstructionist takes on canonical Parker pieces ranging from "Donna Lee" to "Parker’s Mood."

Rudresh Mahanthappa.
Credit Courtesy of the artist
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Courtesy of the artist
Rudresh Mahanthappa.
Mahanthappa’s new works are each based on a Charlie Parker melody or solo.

No, this not anything like an academically arid homage or some sort of cerebral jazz laboratory experiment performed on the body of Parker’s work. Nor is it an ornithologist/taxidermist’s stuffing and mounting of Bird’s legacy.

Instead, the new recording -- which is powered by Mahanthappa’s sophisticated, searing alto and his surging band -- consists of original, vital  compositions based on and influenced by Charlie Parker’s solos and tunes.

“I’ve always thought of my work as being an extension of Charlie Parker’s vocabulary as both an improviser and composer,” Mahanthappa has explained of his latest project. “That is to say that Bird provided us with a lifetime of tools and techniques with which we can create whatever we desire within a contemporary music landscape,” he said.

“In examining Bird’s work,” he said of his methodology, “one readily sees a great wealth of melodic and rhythmic substance as potential compositional material. In isolation, I observe that melody and solo fragments slightly removed from their original context result in promoting some of the most advanced and forward thinking musical concepts ever encountered.”

Using all that as his foundation, he has constructed new works with each of his compositions based, as he says, on a Parker melody or solo.

“We are not playing Charlie Parker’s music at all,” he said, “but clearly demonstrating his legacy of timeless innovation.”

On the recording, Mahanthappa’s interactive collaborators are trumpeter Adam O’Farrill, pianist Matt Mitchell, acoustic bassist Francois Moutin, and drummer Rudy Royston. But for Jordan Perlson on drums in place of Royston, the band’s lineup is the same for the Firehouse sets.

"Bird Calls", the CD’s title piece, is the opening number and recurs four more times in succinct but elegant appearances, acting as the connective tissue between eight extended  original pieces such as "On the DL," based on Bird’s "Donna Lee," and  "Talin Is Thinking," based on "Parker’s Mood."   

"Bird Calls" is a beautiful, holy invocation. In its first incarnation, it features a brilliant call and response conversation between Mahanthappa and O’Farrill, who are tightly attuned throughout. Benefactor of a talent-rich gene pool, O’Farrill is the son of Grammy Award-winning pianist Arturo O'Farrill and the classical pianist Alison Deane, and grandson of the legendary Afro-Cuban jazz composer Chico O'Farrill.

While Mahanthappa is often praised, if not also revered, for his high IQ and iconoclastic daring, it should not be forgotten that he can also play blazing alto brimming with raw emotion, whether soloing with the band or in expressive a cappella saxophone soliloquies.

The rhythm section lays down a finely spun rhythmic carpet -- one decorated with dazzling, exotic designs -- on which Mahanthappa and O’Farrill dance with their adventurous but never self-indulgent solos and crisp colloquies. 

Everybody gets to spread their wings on Bird Calls in its democratic pursuit of happiness. The two horn players, although captains of their fate and masters of the universe, are not the only frequent flyers aboard this imaginative flight. You can also savor the colorful plumage of Moutin’s acoustic bass artistry, Royston’s royally roistering rhythms and Mitchell’s soaring piano playing. Tickets: $20.00, first set; $15.00, second set. Information:firehouse12.com and (203) 785-0468.

Please submit press releases on upcoming jazz events at least two weeks before the publication date to omac28@gmail.com. Comments left below are also welcome.   

Owen McNally writes the weekly Jazz Corridor column for WNPR.org as well as periodic freelance pieces for The Hartford Courant and other publications.

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