Read The Penguin Jazz Guide Online
Authors: Brian Morton,Richard Cook
The Penguin Jazz Guide (191 page)
Reeds
Stone Shift
Rogueart ROG0025
Ochs; Natsuki Tamura (t); Satoko Fujii (p, syn); Scott Amendola, Donald Robinson (d). November 2007.
Larry Ochs says:
‘When I called Satoko to ask if she and Natsuki would join the Drumming Core, I already had “Stone Shift” composed in my head, and told her I only wanted synthesizer. She said: “Synthesizer!? I cannot play it.” I replied: “But I heard you play it on Tamura’s electric quartet CD.” She said: “I have no experience. I just turned it on and reacted to the others.” I said: “Great, that’s exactly what I am looking for!” ’
One might assume that membership of a long-standing ensemble like the ROVA saxophone quartet might have convinced Larry Ochs that the best music is always to be had from situations where the participants are all alert to their companions’ every likely move. In fact, Ochs has proved to be a most welcoming musician, constantly making space on his own projects for new faces and voices. Hence the introduction into Sax & Drumming Core of new music’s most energetic couple, Satoko Fujii and Natsuki Tamura.
Though he has commented privately that subsequent encounters profoundly enhanced the empathy between group and guests, no one approaching
Stone Shift
without preconception could possibly imagine that this was not already a settled partnership. Ochs’s long welcoming speech on ‘Across From Over’ is one of the best available representations on record of his remarkable post-post-Coltrane style, an ironclad line that ripples with harmonic potential. Tamura’s trumpeting takes some time to make its presence felt and Fujii’s initial movements on the synthesizer are tentative at best. By the time ‘Abstraction Rising’ is complete, though, each member of the ensemble has staked out a distinct territory within the sound space. Fujii does move to her piano for this one – Ochs commented that otherwise it would have been like asking Trane to play, but only on soprano! – and her utterly distinctive pianism, compounded of folk-like shapes, attractively ragged clusters and calligraphic splashes of pure tone, fits into the mix without strain.
‘Stone Shift’ was a well-attested trio piece when this recording was made, but Ochs allows the guest couple to inhabit it as they will. The dedication to Kurosawa makes complete sense. If this is ‘Oriental music’, it’s Eastern in a way that Shakespeare is Eastern, which is to say, universal. Saxophone and drums return to the heart of things on the closing ‘Finn Veers For Venus’, with trumpet, piano and tatters of synth taking a more decorative role than elsewhere.
It seems likely that the relationship documented will continue and grow, but for the moment this is a near-perfect hour of contemporary creative music.
JOE LOCKE
Born 18 March 1959, Palo Alto, California
Vibraphone
For The Love Of You
Koch 2046
Locke; Geoff Keezer (p); George Mraz (b); Kenny Washington (v). May 2009.
Joe Locke says:
‘It celebrates the art of songwriting: stories of love, loss and elation given a new twist, while maintaining their integrity. Very different from previous projects, which focused on developing and performing new original music with atypical forms, this is a return to tradition.’
While Joe Locke can easily assert the kind of virtuosity associated with Gary Burton, it’s Bobby Hutcherson’s asymmetrical lines and dark, eruptive solos to which he sounds most in debt. He gets an idiosyncratic sound from the notoriously faceless instrument – he keeps the sparkle of the vibes but loses their glassiness. As an improviser, he weaves very long lines out of open harmonic situations, maintaining a momentum over short or long distances – he can send up resonant clouds of notes or pare a trail back to its sparsest origins. He can also make the most of slow tempos.
The son of a classical music teacher, Locke studied privately after moving to New York in childhood and quickly established himself as a thoughtful and expressive player, working a line parallel to Hutcherson’s boldly lyrical approach. Locke is an intensely emotional player. Every phrase seems packed with meaning. His early Steeplechase records have this
quality in abundance, but it has grown deeper now that Locke has managed to avoid the risk he once ran of becoming a full-time guest star and is concentrating on his own luminous records.
For The Love Of You
is a lyrical masterpiece. The material ranges from delicious originals (‘Verrazano Moon’, ‘I Miss New York (When I Been Gone Too Long)’), Morricone’s ‘Cinema Paradiso’ theme, the Isley Brothers title-track, Neil Young’s ‘Birds’, and standards as unashamedly romantic as ‘The Shadow Of Your Smile’ and ‘Two For The Road’. The Morricone is outstanding, with a plangently bowed solo from Mraz (one of the few bassists who delivers as much
arco
as he does when plucking) and one of Keezer’s most finely achieved solos on record.
It’s a romantic’s record, for romantics, but it would be unwise to overlook the steely musicianship that goes into even the apparently lightweight opener. There’s real authority here, and Locke finally lays secure claim to Milt Jackson’s crown.
INDEX OF PERFORMERS
Aaltonen, Mongo
521
Aarset, Eivind
616
Abbott, Derrick
156
Abdullah, Ahmed
542
Abercrombie, John
411
,
414
,
415
,
423
,
433
,
510
,
538
,
631
Åberg, Lennart
312
Ables, Charles
571
Abrams, Lee
152
Abrams, Muhal Richard
431
,
455
,
542–3
Abrams, Ray
104
Acey, Sinclair
440
Achee, Lyndon
679
Acuña, Alex
676
Acuña, Claudia
657
Adams, Bruce
690
Adams, George
474
Adams, John
650
Adams, Placide
501
Adasiewicz, Jason
724
Adde, Leo
11
Adderley, Cannonball
104
,
223–4
,
232
,
246
Adderley, Nat
104
,
114
,
151
,
233
,
244
,
246
,
249–50
,
262
,
385
,
610
Adderley, Nick
84
Adler, Rudolph
79
Aëbi, Irène
398
Aguiar, António Augusto
698
Aiken, Bud
13
Åkerberg, Sture
312
Akinmusire, Ambrose
682
Akiyoshi, Toshiko
427–8
Albam, Manny
116
Alcazar, Hugo
703
Alcorn, Oliver
23
Alessi, Ralph
630
Alex, Eddie
471
Alexander, Adolphe
99
Alexander, Adolphe, Jr
6
Alexander, Dee
681
Alexander, Joe
182
Alexander, Mousie
441
Alexander, Roland
391
Alexander, Taru
491
Alexis, Ricard
23
Alexy, Bob
59
Ali, Rashied
557
Alix, May
21
Al-Jabry, Mohamed
445
Al-Khabyyr, Sayyd Abdul
491
Allan, Alistair
577
Allan, Jay
312
Allen, Annisteen
87
Allen, Charlie
64
Allen, Ed
19
Allen, Fletcher
32
Allen, Henry ‘Red’
37
,
37–8
,
44
,
48
,
58
,
79
Allen, Moses
41
Allen, Richard
489
Allen, Sam Christopher
84
Allison, Ben
652–3
Allison, Mose
256
Allyn, David
101
Almark, Danny
389
Almeida, Laurindo
128
Alonge, Ray
253
Alpert, Trigger
98
Alston, Ovie
63
Alterman, Mike
321
Altschul, Barry
330
,
357
,
400
,
431
Alvarez, Chico
128
Alvarez, Francisco
116
Ameen, Ramsey
409
Amendola, Scott
728