jazz – Page 11

Gary Burton | Reunion

JazzJournal.UK reviewed Reunion, led by vibraphonist Gary Burton and featuring Pat Metheny on guitar, Mitch Forman (who also wrote the title track) on keys, Will Lee on bass (yes, the guy from the Letterman show band), and Peter Erskine on drums.

“Jazzmen are so unpredictable. Writing on the sleeve of his 1988 Times Like These album, Burton said ‘I still don’t feel that I’m going to work with guitarists anytime soon.’ Yet within 12 months or so, he has taken up with his old sideman Pat Metheny after a break of 12 years. Buoyant and Latinate, this set contrasts significantly with earlier Burton/Metheny liaisons. Burton, reticent as ever about his writing abilities, has employed five composers across 11 tracks (including the excellent Vince Mendoza), but there is no lack of cohesion. Everything is beautifully executed, and Burton and Metheny take a host of solos.”

From the album’s liner notes: “(Burton and Metheny) have been called prodigies. Burton joined George Shearing’s group in 1963 at the age of 19. He met Metheny at the Wichita Jazz Festival in 1973 when Metheny was 18 years old. After welcoming him as a teaching colleague at the Berklee College of Music, he hired Metheny for the newly expanded Gary Burton Quintet in 1974. Metheny left Burton’s group in 1977 to form his own quartet with Lyle Mays.” The two artists had next to no contact for over a decade, until the 1988 Montreal Jazz Festival. “‘My apprehension was immediately erased when I saw how easy it was for us to play together, even after 12 years,’ said Burton. This led to their collaboration on Reunion (1990).”

The album’s title track starts in G minor, followed by a modulation up to Bb minor at 3:21. At 4:23, we’ve reverted to the original key for a final chorus of melody.

Roy Ayers | Searchin’

According to the website of R&B/jazz vibraphonist/vocalist Roy Ayers, he’s known as “the Godfather of Neo-Soul. He continues to bridge the gap between generations of music lovers. In the 60s he was an award-winning jazz vibraphonist and transformed into a popular R&B band leader in the 70s/80s.”

Although he started performing in the late 1940s and was a part of the acid jazz sound of the 1970s with his band Ubiquity, he’s been prominently sampled by Dr. Dre, J. Cole, Tyler the Creator, Jill Scott and more, “earning him a vaunted place among music producers and DJs,” (LA Times). Again from his own website: “Today, (Ayers) is an iconic figure still in great demand with music industry heavyweights, including Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu, 50 Cent, A Tribe Called Quest, Tupac and Ice Cube. Many of Ayers’ songs have been frequently sampled and remixed by DJs worldwide.”

“Searchin'” (1976) starts in E minor but shifts to G minor for its choruses (for the first time from 0:46 – 1:25) before reverting to the original key.

Aubrey Johnson | No More ‘I Love Yous’

Aubrey Johnson “is a New York-based vocalist, composer, and educator who specializes in jazz, Brazilian, and creative contemporary music with and without words. She holds a Master of Music degree in jazz performance from the New England Conservatory and teaches at Berklee College of Music in the Voice Department and in the Jazz Masters Program at Queens College in New York City.” As a college student, Aubrey won two DownBeat Collegiate Student Music Awards for Best Jazz Vocalist and Jazz Vocalist, Outstanding Performance and another during her master’s studies for Outstanding Performance in Jazz Voice.

Johnson has studied with Danilo Perez, Jerry Bergonzi, Dominique Eade, Allan Chase, George Garzone, and Frank Carlber; she contributed to Bobby McFerrin’s Grammy-nominated release VOCAbuLaries. She’s also shared the stage with Lyle Mays, Janis Siegel (Manhattan Transfer), Fred Hersch’s Pocket Orchestra, John Zorn’s Mycale Vocal Quartet, and many others, and as a leader with her own band.

The tune Johnson covered in 2020, “No More I Love Yous,” is best known for its performance by Annie Lennox (1995) — itself a cover of a tune by a band called The Lover Speaks and written by David Freeman and Joseph Hughes. “When the song was released it made a mild murmur in the charts,” Lennox recalls, “but I don’t think it ever really became a hit. There are quite a few songs floating around which should have touched the consciousness of the nation – they should have made their mark, and this is one of them. I thought, well, I might be sticking my neck out to do this, but I really wanted to give it another chance because it’s a magnificent song.” Her hunch paid off: Lennox’s version became a multi-continent smash hit and a Grammy winner.

Liberated from the measured feel of Lennox’s version, Johnson focuses on the lyrical melody lines instead. After a start in D major and a menagerie of short, darting instrumental lines accompanying the vocal on the verse, 1:42 brings a modulation up to F major. At 2:36, there’s a bridge featuring wordless vocals and then a piano solo, cycling through several keys. At 4:09, just before the last chorus section, we’ve pivoted back to D major.

David Sanborn | Snakes

Alto saxophonist David Sanborn’s 1992 album Upfront featured a jaw-dropping who’s-who list of some of the best players at that time: Marcus Miller (production, keyboards, lead guitar, bass guitar, bass clarinet), Steve Jordan (drums), Hiram Bullock (guitar), Naná Vasconcelos (percussion), Randy Brecker (trumpet), Ricky Peterson (organ), and many more.

Sanborn’s “R&B crossover” sound, as AllMusic calls it, is clearly in evidence here on the album’s opening track “Snakes.” After a start in G minor, a straight-ahead funk feel drives an extended section built around the tonic; from 1:10-1:27, the bass continues the a pedal point tonic while a procession of compound chords tug at our ears underneath Sanborn’s climbing sax line as it leans into every curve. The pattern continues until 3:24-3:41, where a shift to Eb minor, built around a more Latin-infused feel, makes a vivid appearance. The Eb minor section returns at 3:24-3:40 and again at 4:30, this time to stay.

Ella Fitzgerald + Louis Armstrong | Dream a Little Dream of Me

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong recorded a duet cover of this 1931 Ozzie Nelson tune in the 1950s. Originally released as a single, the track has subsequently been included on many compilation albums featuring the two singers. Starting in C, the tune modulates up a half step to Db at 1:57.

Pat Metheny | In Her Family

“Pat Metheny’s love of Brazilian music comes into full bloom on 1987’s Still Life (Talking); it’s not the only stylistic element at play here, but it’s the most striking one,” (Apple Music). “The band is highly polished and coupled with Metheny’s crystalline production, the sound of the title track — and the rest of the album — sparkles.” Sierra Music describes “In Her Family,” the album-closing track, “one of Pat’s most haunting, pensive, and beautiful ballads.”

After a start in Ab minor, a simple, largely stepwise melody is greatly magnified by a bridge which takes flight over sweeping multi-key terrain (1:22-2:12). At 2:12, we’ve reverted to the original key, with short melodic phrases once again allowing the harmonies to take center stage.

Marcela Mangabeira | Para Ti

Born in the Brazilian city of Recife in 1981, Marcela Mangabeira “participated in the first European tour of the group Bossacucanova in 2001, passing through Spain, Denmark, Germany, France, England, and Wales,” the Brazilian website Som13.com reports. “She moved to Rio de Janeiro in 2003 … Her first album, Simples, was released in 2005 in Japan, where it had a great reception.” According to her own website, Mangabeira has released two other albums: Colors of Rio (2011) and Closer Project (2017); her music is also part of 40 compilations worldwide.

“Para Ti” (For You) was released on Simples. Its breezy contemporary sound rolls along beautifully as the Mangabeira finishes the first section. A wordless vocals section from the backup singers begins at 1:33; a half-step modulation catches us by surprise at 1:36, right in the middle of a phrase. At 2:42, an amorphous outro floats onward until the tune’s end.

Astrud Gilberto | Stay

From Astrud Gilberto’s site: “Known as ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ and often referred to as ‘The Queen of Bossa Nova,’ (Gilberto) is an artist with roots firmly planted in Brazilian music. Her music has become an interesting combination of the sensual rhythms of Brazil and American Pop and Jazz. Born in the Northeast of Brazil in the state of Bahia, one of three sisters of a German father and a Brazilian mother, Astrud grew up in Rio de Janeiro. She immigrated to the United States in the early 1960s,” and has lived in the US since then.

“Astrud was first introduced to the world at large in 1964 through ‘The Girl From Ipanema,’ the Grammy-winning recording with Stan Getz and her then-husband João Gilberto (the father of Bossa Nova).” Since then, she’s worked with Chet Baker, Michael Brecker, George Michael, Etienne Daho, and many other artists. In 1992, she received the Latin Jazz USA Award for Lifetime Achievement; in 2002, she was inducted to the International Latin Music Hall of Fame. She was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award by the Latin Recording Academy in 2008.

From a 1981 New York Times review: “(It’s) still very much the same – about 80 percent Brazilian, from the 1960s and 70s. And she is still puzzled by the fact that she is often characterized as a jazz singer. ‘What is a jazz singer? Somebody who improvises? But I don’t: I prefer simplicity. I’ve been told that my phrasing is jazz-influenced. My early albums were recorded for a jazz label, Verve. My first record was with Stan Getz. And I did an album with Gil Evans. So I guess that’s where the jazz idea comes from. But I’m not a pure jazz singer.’

Her 1967 tune “Stay,” recorded in English, modulates up by a half-step at 1:41 in the midst of a wonderful flute solo by Hubert Laws; the vocal returns at 1:46. The flute and vocal trade soloist status throughout the balance of the tune.

Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra | Star Eyes

Written by Don Raye and Gene de Paul, “Star Eyes” was initially recorded by Stephane Grappelli, praised by NPR as “one of the jazz world’s greatest violinists. Grappelli first found fame in France with Django Reinhart’s Quintette du Hot Club. He went on to an illustrious career playing with everyone from Oscar Peterson to Paul Simon to Yo-Yo Ma.”

In 1943, the tune became part of the soundtrack for the movie I Dood It. IMDB summarizes the plot of the wartime film: “A bumbling pants presser at an upscale hotel’s valet service nurses an unrequited crush on a Broadway star. He gets more than he bargained for when she agrees to marry him, to spite her womanizing fiance, and encounters Nazi saboteurs.” Variety gave the film a tepid review: “Metro has wrapped Red Skelton and Eleanor Powell, among other names, around a popular Skelton radio phrase that’s used for the film’s title, and the net result is moderate entertainment. I Dood It is, by Metro’s usual standards, not one of its best musicals, but that’s due mostly to the screenplay. While the plot of a musical can generally be accepted only as a cue for the song-and-dance, the failing is particularly apparent in Dood It.”

Other than the soundtrack, a redeeming facet of the film is that it managed to feature jazz pianist Hazel Scott and triple-threat Lena Horne, two pillars of the African-American arts community (though Scott was born in Trinidad). Both women later became known for their civil rights activism.

After the tune starts in Db major with Bob Elberly on vocals, 1:32 brings a quickening tempo and a harmonically unsettled transition. At 1:52, the big band’s conductor, the one and only Jimmy Dorsey, stops keeping time and delivers an all-too-short alto sax solo in G major. At 2:19, it’s Helen O’Connor’s turn to shine, with a section in Bb major.

A big thanks to Jamie A. for another wonderful submission!

Modern Jazz Quartet | Over the Rainbow

” … it seems improbable that a group which came together as the rhythm section for one of the hottest players in Bebop’s genesis era, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, could morph into a standalone group that was the epitome of grace, elegance and cool dignity,” AllAboutJazz.com concludes. “But that’s exactly what happened when Gillespie recruited pianist John Lewis, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Kenny Clarke, giving the quartet an opportunity to shine as a discrete unit when it came time, during his sextet’s exhausting sets, to give the horns a break, calling, ‘OK, band off!’

The pairing of Lewis and Jackson proved an ideal tension, demonstrating how different musical interests can, indeed, come together to create something altogether new, the pianist’s interest in classical music dovetailing perfectly with the more overtly jazz-centric and grounded vibraphonist … A duo version of ‘Over the Rainbow’ (1956) focuses on Lewis and Jackson’s adept skill at reshaping music from external sources with Modern Jazz Quartet‘s classically informed modus operandi.”

After a piano-led intro in C major, Jackson’s vibes are the focus at 0:15 as the tune shifts to Eb major. At 1:03, we seem to retroactively discover that we’ve stumbled into Db major, but at 1:32, we’ve returned to Eb major for the balance of the tune. There’s plenty of evidence here of the ensemble’s understated yet pioneering sound: “For those operating under the misconception that the African-American jazz tradition was monolithically linked to the blues …” AllAboutJazz continues, “As far back as the 1930s, clarinetist Sidney Bechet was liberally quoting from Italian operas in his solos, but it was perhaps less obvious, less visible, than when John Lewis began looking at ways to bring the intimacy of classical chamber music to a jazz context. In direct contrast to bebop’s fire and unbridled energy, MJQ was one of the earliest examples of cool jazz.”

for Travis