February 2010 issue - Jazz Singers.com

The first Grossman original “Extemporaneous”
followed as medium up-tempo. This comes
from one of Grossman’s excellent studio albums
“Time to Smile” (which also featured Tom Harrell).
Hazeltine’s solo was deeply steeped in the Tommy
Flanagan/Wynton Kelly tradition. Clear, thoughtful
bop lines, two-handed block chords and double time
runs all came together to create a cool and swinging
solo that delighted the audience and set the stage
perfectly for a characteristically powerful Grossman
solo. The audience which packed the club seemed to
know exactly what they came for, and you could see
people exchanging knowing glances as Grossman
quoted “Exactly Like You” several times, as well as
some of his own licks and pet phrases.
The ballad for the first set was “Soultrane”,
made famous by Coltrane’s version on the album of
the same name, and also recorded by Grossman more
than once. For this rendition, Grossman was content
with handing the main solo over to Hazeltine, while
he concentrated on rendering the melody with his
round, beautiful sound and embellishments.
A more modern Grossman original, “Katonah”,
found the quartet reaching deeper into the Coltrane
heritage. Hazeltine took the cue from Grossman, and
seamlessly transformed into early-Tyner style, pushing
Grossman to new heights. Grossman pulled all
the stops, firing off his early-period mix of chromatic
and pentatonic phrases, sometimes turning his back
to the audience to face the extraordinary drummer
Jason Brown, with whom he clearly enjoyed interacting
very closely and trading fours and eights.
“Fungii Mama” was the perfect closer for the
first set. The catchy Blue Mitchell head with its Latin
feel and Rhythm Changes form make this one of
Grossman’s favorite vehicles for weaving his memorable
and exciting hard-bop lines.
The second set opened with “Circus”, another
old tune that Grossman recorded several times (“I’m
Confessing” and “Time To Smile”). “Time Was” followed
suit, rendered as a medium tempo standard
which Grossman recorded on his “Live At Café
Praga” album. Both of these re-established the hard
bop mood for the new audience that joined, and
for those of us who stayed for both sets. Hazeltine,
Weber and Brown were all in top form, each getting
ample solo spots as Grossman generously waved them
in, and encouraged them with words and gestures.
The bop mood soon gave way to a hard hitting
version of “Taurus People”, from the “Live At the
Lighthouse” album. Grossman has since recorded
this song several times (most recently on his album
with the great Johnny Griffin). This song had all the
raw energy and fire of early Grossman, and of course
the rhythm section was right there with him at
every step.
The Mal Waldron ballad “Soul Eyes”, another
Coltrane favorite, gave Grossman another opportunity
to showcase his beautiful tone and emotionally
charged ballad rendition. Hazeltine took a memorable
solo, occasionally quoting phrases from Mccoy
Tyner’s timeless solo, but ultimately making his own
statement that drew several “yeah”s from Grossman
and the audience. Grossman took a mighty solo and
ended with one of his famous solo cadences that left
the audience in a state of bliss.
The standard “I Hear a Rhapsody” was possibly
one of the highlights of the evening. As Grossman
shifted back and forth between his bop-oriented
eighth note lines and his post-Coltrane sixteenth note
flurries that he was famous for in the 70’s, the audience
seemed to get especially excited and his solo won
some of the most enthusiastic applause of the whole
evening. The evening closed with Dizzy Gillespie’s
classic “Night In Tunisia” which Grossman recorded
on one of his best studio albums “Hold The Line”.
Grossman bid everyone an emotional goodbye and
a heartfelt thank you, and the audience was unanimous
in agreeing that none of us want to wait so long
to see him in New York again.
By Ken Weiss
Helen Sung –
Ron Carter Duo
Paul Robeson Center
for the Arts
Princeton, New Jersey
December 11, 2009
Princeton’s JazzNights is an organization
started in 2002 by two jazz fans, Mary Wisnovsky
and Maitland Jones, who were frustrated by the lack
of jazz in their community and decided to take matters
into their own hands. Their vision was to import
nationally respected musicians to Princeton to play
in the intimacy of a living room setting with a focus
on duos and trios and some fine wine free with
admission. When they booked pianist Helen Sung
for their 36 th event and spread the word that she was
bringing bassist Ron Carter as her sparring partner,
the reservation list was immediately overrun, necessitating
a move from a private home to the comfortable
confines of Princeton’s Paul Robeson Center
for the Arts in partnership with the Arts Council
of Princeton.
Sung, one of the bright young stars on the scene
and a semi-finalist of the 1999 Thelonious Monk
International Jazz Competition, first encountered
Carter as a student at the Thelonious Monk Institute
of Jazz Performance where he was the artistic director
and had played in duo with him earlier in 2009 at
the Rubin Museum of Art.
Sung’s self-professed pre-concert jitters were understandable,
it’s a daunting task having to go toe-totoe
with a true living legend such as Ron Carter, but
once the concert started, there were no false steps.
Although separated in years by four decades, they
complemented each other well, sharing a common
ground forged by classical training, impeccable talent
and most of all, innate elegance. Sung navigated
numerous genres with a natural ease, impressing
with some hard swinging jazz, some Spanish folk and
a touch of romance to go along with the ever-present
classical forms.
The song selection consisted of plenty of chestnuts
such as Bacharach’s “Wives And Lovers,” Kern’s
Helen Sung
“The Song Is You,” and Monk’s “In Walked Bud”
and “Eronel.” Sung used the opportunity to display
her winning compositional chops with her Isaac
Albeniz inspired tune “Shall We Tango” and with
“Reconception,” a variation on George Shearing’s
“Conception.”
The night’s highpoint came on Carter’s original
composition “Little Waltz” which appeared to inspire
the artists with a special focus and at one point
they even flashed bright smiles to each other. The
wistful piece was captivating with its warm tones and
rich use of space. Other highlights included Sung’s
solo rendition of “Nice Work If You Can Get It,”
preceded by her announcement that, “The one thing
that terrifies me even more than playing with Mr.
Carter, is playing solo,” and also Carter’s solo during
“Wives And Lovers.” While lightly striking his bass
strings, Carter created whispery variations and then
used right handed oscillations to conjure up sounds
akin to internal piano strings manipulation, earning
the biggest cheer of the evening.
This performance was one of the top ten I witnessed
in 2009 and Sung summed it up well by saying,
“To play with Mr. Carter a second time was wonderful,
it was like continuing a musical conversation. We
got the chance to delve a little deeper into the music.”
Although the song selection could have been a bit
more modern, the playing was uniformly breathtaking
from both participants. The room proved to be
acoustically superior and intimate, a perfect setting
to witness Carter stretch out with the help of a gifted
accompanist, especially one with whom he shared
such outstanding chemistry. The audience, which
was not necessarily a jazz audience, was often on the
edge of their seats, swept up by the music’s excitement
and beauty. One overheard post-concert comment
was, “That was almost good enough to make
me like jazz!”
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