Á

Masterpiece Excellent Good Fair Poor
Inside
74 / Jazz
76 / Blues
78 / Beyond
80 / Historical
82 / Books
Kenny Burrell
Unlimited 1
HIGH NOTE 7298
Kenny Burrell is the last of the generation
directly influenced by guitarist Charlie
Christian, whose brief career flashed like a
supernova between 1939 and ’41 but left the
electric guitar behind as his personal monument.
It’s good to have Burrell around, still
racing coolly over the frets or caressing lyrically
here on “‘A’ Train” and “Passion Flower.”
But this is not really a Burrell package.
His larger mission is to offer his famous
brand and UCLA faculty prestige in support
of the Los Angeles Jazz Orchestra Unlimited,
the band he helped found in 2013 and has
sought to build into a repertory unit on the
order of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
West. I know such ventures come with a
musty academic epistemology to some. A
true jazz orchestra, they would say, should
have a soul of its own and not go about renting
out its identity to past heroes and future
prospects. But, like it or not, as mortality has
claimed the great originals of jazz history,
the move to institutionalize that history has
made the classroom and repertory orchestra
among the music’s busiest venues.
That said, there’s nothing classroomish
about this excellent band, which can infuse a
jazz standard such as Oliver Nelson’s “Stolen
Moments” with both respectful observance
and creative latitude. Using the 1961
Impulse! recording as its model, the reeds
project Nelson’s original tenor solo to section
strength, while Bobby Rodriguez and Justo
Almario fill the shoes of Freddie Hubbard
and Eric Dolphy in their own way.
Even a warhorse like “Take The ‘A’ Train”
finds fresh trails, galloping through the 1941
Ellington chart and original Ray Nance trumpet
solo before turning the brass loose in a
series of eights and a collective four-horn jam.
The other firecracker is “Fourth Dimensions,” a
Don Sickler reinvention of Burrell’s 1950 debut
recording, “Kenny’s Sound” (also the first session
of Tommy Flanagan). The original is sufficiently
obscure now that Sickler’s hard-swing-
©MARK SHELDON
Kenny Burrell
ing chart qualifies as a new original.
One doesn’t normally come to Burrell to
hear him sing. He sounds a bit too heavy, for
example, to provide the requisite hipness on
Oscar Brown Jr.’s “Jeannine.” But this is a densely
packed CD that can indulge a few moments
of non-essentials. —John McDonough
Unlimited 1: Stolen Moments; Jeannine; Be Yourself; Remembering;
Mama Ya Ya; Fourth Dimensions; Adelante1; Soulero; Passion Flower;
Take The ‘A’ Train; Things Ain’t What They Used To Be. (75:50)
Personnel: Kenny Burrell, guitar, vocals (2, 4); Bobby Rodriguez,
Mike Price, Dave Richards, Don Papenbrook, Tom Marino, trumpets;
Nick De Pinna, Ryan Porter, trombones; Justo Almario, Scott Mayo,
Hitomi Oba, Andrea Delano, Charles Owens, saxophones; Billy
Mitchell, piano; Trevor Ware, bass; Clayton Cameron, drums; Barbara
Morrison, vocals (10).
Ordering info: jazzdepot.com
FEBRUARY 2017 DOWNBEAT 69