The Penguin Jazz Guide (161 page)

Williams performed for a time as Jessica Jennifer Williams using electronic keyboards, and didn’t make much of a splash in the jazz mainstream till she started releasing acoustic jazz records in the ’80s, when her distinctive style – compounded of Tatum, Monk, Evans, Brubeck – became immediately evident. She has been prolific ever since, despite living off the beaten track in north California and one suspects that for Williams CDs are more than calling cards or gig souvenirs, but an important aspect of her art.

She has most often been heard either solo (including a Maybeck Hall date) or in a trio context, so it was surprising and at first unsettling to hear her work with horns. A slightly earlier disc with Thomas and Hadley Caliman was called
Joy
. It certainly emoted but there was a distracting busyness to some numbers which is all but eliminated here. Straightforward melody statement is the priority, leaving ample room for soloing. Williams contributes a catchy whistle to the opening ‘Smoking Section’, an excellent original dedicated to Roland Kirk. Most of the first half is devoted to Williams compositions, all of them testy and potentially lethal, though one now understands why the mood was so abrasive. There’s a change of pace and tone with ‘See See Rider’, and later on Thomas plays his trumpet on ‘St Louis Blues’, getting a ripe old sound out of it: a rare musician who seems as easy on brass as on a saxophone where his solos are funky and to the point. ‘Raise Four’ allows Williams to exercise her Monk obsession again, but to dramatic effect. It’s a cracking performance and this is perhaps her best record. The other players challenge her and mitigate the somewhat florid intellectualism of some of the solo recitals.

DEWEY REDMAN
^&

Born 17 May 1931, Fort Worth, Texas; died 2 September 2006, New York City

Tenor and alto saxophones, musette

In London

Palmetto PM 2030

Redman; Rita Marcotulli (p); Cameron Brown (b); Matt Wilson (d). October 1996.

Dewey Redman said (1999):
‘That’s one of my best records. I like to play in Europe. I think they appreciate jazz music there, more than in America, except perhaps New York. And you sense that and you try things, knowing that no one minds if you fall on your ass.’

In his last years, Redman’s reputation was almost eclipsed by that of his son Joshua, with whom he sustained an arm’s-length but affectionate and respectful relationship. Of course, Joshua’s success also introduced the father to a generation who hadn’t been buying records when
Ear Of The Behearer
was made. Like Pharoah Sanders, who had worked with Redman
in one of his earliest bands, Dewey got mellower as the years went by. The more eldritch qualities of his attack were almost gone by the beginning of his last decade. Instead, there was a philosophical calm beneath which roiled the remnants of his avant-garde persona.

Recorded live at Ronnie Scott’s club, Redman sounds rejuvenated and adventuresome with a band that splits down naturally into two pairs, himself and long-standing collaborator Brown up against the Italian Marcotulli and Wilson. The band actually work from a different axis on ‘Tu-Inns’, the most adventurous tune on the set. Piano and bass take off darkly, building up a steady, brooding
ostinato
against which saxophone and drums enter with an explosion of sound. As ever, Redman mixes outside and relatively mainstream styles, giving ‘The Very Thought Of You’, his tribute to Dexter Gordon, a loose, swinging energy and Sammy Cahn’s ‘I Should Care’ an easy, melodic interpretation. ‘Portrait In Black And White’ is an unexpectedly straightforward Jobim cover, but what’s interesting about all of these middle-of-the-road numbers is how carefully they’re juxtaposed with the more adventurous material. Tunes like ‘I-Pimp’, ‘Kleerwine’ and ‘Elevens’ are a reminder that Redman hadn’t entirely abandoned his avant-gardism and commitment to the new. An old lion, still dangerous, and nowhere close to falling on his ass.

& See also
Ear Of The Behearer
(1973; p. 403)

CLAIRE MARTIN

Born 6 September 1967, London

Voice

Make This City Ours

Linn AKD 066

Martin; Gerard Presencer (t, flhn); Antonio Hart (as); Gareth Williams (p, v); Peter Washington (b); Gregory Hutchinson (d). October 1996.

Claire Martin says:
‘Apart from Peter Washington nailing “Estate” in 5/4 in one take, the highlight was a photo shoot with the late, great William Claxton. Afterwards, I was alone in the back of a limo – the driver’s next job was to pick up Clint Eastwood! – thinking: “I’ve really made it … check me out!” when a
huge
truck slammed into us and the dream came to a swearing, honking, sticky end. I had to go back on the subway, but for just a moment … queen of the world.’

Martin was the most exciting female jazz singer to emerge in the ’90s and an inspired signing for Scottish-based label Linn. Though her British groups have done her consistently proud, American success and a fruitful association with Richard Rodney Bennett have propelled her onto a new stage; for once, the label that shaped her career has been able to come along and enjoy the fruits. Influenced by some of the great cool jazz singers, Chris Connor most obviously, but with a hint of Julie London’s laid-back sense of drama, too, Martin never over-dramatizes a lyric, but shows a clear understanding of what she is singing. Much of her early work for Linn has been parcelled up in compilation boxes. These are a good way to make her acquaintance, but for a quick fix of Martin in mature form, it’s best to go straight to
Make This City Ours.

Martin approached her 30th birthday with a solid reputation, but not yet with a statement on record that matched up to her live presence. She also had, so far, no real reputation in the US. If one album deserves to establish her as a singer with real star potential, then it’s this one. Even the title sounds like a confident declaration of intent. Recorded in New York, with Washington, Hart and Hutchinson guesting, it has a more cosmopolitan feel than any of its predecessors. Presencer’s trumpet-playing conveys innocence and weary maturity, and Hart always sounds good around singers. A new Martin composition, ‘Empty Bed’,
bodes well. We were divided on her arrangement of Bruno Martino’s ‘Estate’, with words by Joel Siegel, but it stands up strongly on repeated hearings and only ‘Another Night’ sounds remotely formulaic. Arguably, there were even better records to come, notably a tribute to Shirley Horn called
He Never Mentioned Love
and
A Modern Art
, but it’s always great to hear an artist coming into her own, and that’s what happened one autumn in New York.

TERELL STAFFORD

Born 26 November 1966, Miami, Florida

Trumpet

Centripetal Force

Candid CACD 79718

Stafford; John Clark (frhn); Ron Blake, Tim Warfield (ts); Russell Malone (g); Stefon Harris (vib); Stephen Scott (p); Ed Howard (b); Victor Lewis (d); Daniel Moreno (perc). October 1996.

Nat Adderley said (1985):
‘… and Terell Stafford, there’s another young trumpet-player out of Florida. There’s definitely something in the water, except all these guys sound different and distinctive, and I like Terell’s sound.’

Stafford was a regular member of Bobby Watson’s group Horizon, which also numbered Simon and Lewis, and he came to his own debut recording with a sensibility very much marked by Watson’s small-group/big-sound idea. Stafford isn’t just another latter-day run-of-the-mill bopper. Though he draws on a range of influences running from Fats Navarro (a fellow Floridan) and Clifford Brown to mid-period Miles and Lee Morgan, he already has a distinctive inflexion and a very personal phraseology.

Centripetal Force
is exactly what’s at work here, a group which is working very closely and sympathetically. Again Tim Warfield brings his clean, youthful sound, but on just one track this time. A version of ‘Daahoud’ is a special dedication, but it also points up the Brown influence again. Though the whole band is never heard together, the richer palette suits the trumpeter admirably and he produces some magnificent statements on ‘I’ll Wait’ and ‘Skylark’, a back-to-back pair that are as sheerly refreshing as anything from the last few years. Thad Jones’s ‘A Child Is Born’ is for trumpet and guitar, and ‘My Romance’ is an elegant trumpet solo.

ALAN BROADBENT

Born 23 April 1947, Auckland, New Zealand

Piano

Personal Standards

Concord CCD 4757

Broadbent; Putter Smith (b); Joe LaBarbera (d). October 1996.

Alan Broadbent said (1997): ‘Maybe jazz really isn’t for everyone. If you don’t have that subtlety and that responsiveness to changes in time, maybe it just doesn’t work for you, and you’re always going to be just OK with fusion, or whatever. I look for things like that in a song before I can do anything with it; the beauty of time, if you like.’

Broadbent went to Berklee in 1966 and from there joined Woody Herman as pianist-arranger. His career has divided along those lines ever since. He worked with Chet Baker and has more recently worked with Diana Krall, but his most prominent playing roles have been as a member of Charlie Haden’s Quartet West and as a solo and duo recitalist in Concord’s
Maybeck Hall series. He deserves to be better known. There’s great clarity of thought to Broadbent’s playing, the interpretations entire and well-formed rather than merely busked, and if that suggests a lack of spontaneity, he always manages to make the music sound fresh. Broadbent takes his cues first from Parker and Powell, yet one seldom thinks about bop while listening to his two-handed approach.

Personal Standards
is superlative. Here he tackles eight originals, plus one he wishes he had written himself, Smith’s ‘North’. It’s something of a shock to come across such a rich vein of writing and not be able to identify by name any of these beautiful melodies. ‘Song Of Home’ and ‘The Long Goodbye’ are familiar from Quartet West performances, but who has picked up that remarkably original blues ‘Uncertain Terms’ or ‘Idyll’? The playing is so impeccable, the responsiveness of the group so refined (LaBarbera has never played better), that one is left at a loss for words. Broadbent deserves the highest acclaim.

ARILD ANDERSEN

Born 27 October 1945, Lilleström, Norway

Double bass

Hyperborean

ECM 537342-2

Andersen; Bendik Hofseth (ts); Tore Brunborg (ts, ss); Kenneth Knudsen (ky); Paolo Vinaccia (d, perc); Cikada String Quartet. December 1996.

Saxophonist Tommy Smith has played with Arild Andersen:
‘It’s not only the note or space that’s crucial; it’s the when and the how. Arild’s personality is as big as his bass sound. A man who is the centre of every party and a man who is at the centre of all his music.’

Like many players of his generation in Scandinavia, Andersen was much influenced by exiled guru George Russell’s Lydian Chromatic approach to harmony. The bassist has worked in a wide range of contexts and was leader of Masqualero, a latter-day simulacrum of the Miles Davis quintet. His characteristic manner is resonant and fleet, with much of the harmonic complexity Russell’s influence imbued.

He probably isn’t immediately thought of as one of ECM’s main stars – in the way that Garbarek, Jarrett, Rypdal, Weber, even Surman are – but he has been a constant and steady presence at the label and on the European scene, his big but not insistent sound at the centre of many fine recordings. The earlier ECMs,
Molde Concert, If You Look Far Enough
, the folksier
Sagn
, are varied enough to suggest that Andersen doesn’t have a single compositional style, but writes very much for specific contexts. The only surprise is that ECM have never seen fit to record him unaccompanied, as they have with other bass-players on the roster. Andersen would easily command such a space.

Hyperborean
is a reference to the cool, ageless land the Greeks believed lay beyond the north wind. The music is disciplined, unromantic and timeless. Andersen dispenses with effects pedals, combining his increasingly elaborate improvisations in real time with keyboards and string quartet, lending the whole – ironically enough – a jazzier feel than anything he has done since Masqualero. Hofseth and Brunborg are reduced to supporting cast and it’s the Cikada Quartet that dominates the first half. Things loosen up later, albeit leaving an uneasy sense that Andersen has delivered his main ideas upfront and is then struggling to fill the slot. Though structurally less elaborate than
Sagn
, which is organized as a three-part suite,
Hyperborean
has a unity of tone and an overall sense of direction lacking on the earlier discs. Andersen dominates completely. His sound is immense and his soloing involved and compelling. Every time one hears Andersen at work, one wonders why he isn’t automatically on every list of influential contemporaries.

GERRY HEMINGWAY

Born 23 March 1955, New Haven, Connecticut

Drums, percussion

Waltzes, Two-Steps And Other Matters Of The Heart

GM Recordings Inc GM 3043

Hemingway; Walter Wierbos (tb); Michael Moore (as, cl, bcl); Ernst Reijseger (clo); Mark Dresser (b). November 1996.

Gerry Hemingway says:
‘The swan song of my wonderful quintet of the ’90s, cobbled together from mostly radio recordings made on the most ambitious tour I ever put together, 27 gigs in 28 days all over Europe. Despite a very high level of stress, including a heated feud between Ernst and Michael, I think an elegant view of this versatile ensemble shone through. One favourite piece, “Gitar”, is still in the repertoire.’