heart of gold - The New York City Jazz Record

34 January 2011 | ALLABOUTJAZZ-NEW YORK
Third Floor People
Anna Webber (Nowt)
by Terrell Holmes
Anna Webber’s wildly creative debut, Third Floor
People, defies categorization. This talented tenor
player/flutist boldly deconstructs jazz and other
genres and anyone seeking solace in the arms of a
theme-solos-theme format need not apply.
Webber plays with bands based in New York and
Montréal; the sound of the former band is humorous,
edgy and daring. A somber flute and trumpet
statement by Webber and Matt Holman, with
percussive highlights by Fred Kennedy, opens the first
part of the title cut. Soon a distorted guitar riff by
Owen Stewart-Robertson asserts itself while flute,
trumpet and drums remain unmoved, like a group of
people having a polite conversation as a fight breaks
out. Kennedy’s tribal drums and Webber’s flute on
“Awkward” are augmented by a sizzling rock-out by
Stewart-Robertson; Webber’s tenor whines on
“Glimpses” until Stewart-Robertson and Holman
demand that she get over herself. “Le Pont” is a
contemplative free tune, with languid yet imaginative
blowing by Holman and Webber, who plays her flute
with glorious abandon. And Stewart-Robertson’s
guitar riffs on the frenetic “Parallelissimo II” sound
like “Purple Haze” trying to escape Earth’s gravity.
Webber’s Montréal group plays a little straighter.
“Parallelissimo I”, for example, is as close to standard
jazz as the album goes. Webber (on tenor) and altoist
Erik Hove play dreamily above a strong percussive
loop provided by drummer Phillippe Melanson and
guitarist Jean-Sebastien Williams, who adds some Pat
Metheny-like riffs. The onomatopoetic “Boo Boo Boo
Daa” moves seamlessly into an improvisation so tight
that it seems to be written. This band plays “Third
Floor People II” the same way as the New York band
but where Stewart-Robertson’s guitar screeched,
Williams’ is smooth and clear.
No matter what the band’s location is, there’s
some hip, imaginative, fun stuff happening on the
third floor. Just knock on the door and ask for Anna.
For more information, visit nowtrecords.org. Webber is at
Miles’ Café Jan. 23rd. See Calendar.
Maxine Harry Beckett (ITM)
Straight Ahead Hadley Caliman (Origin)
Do Not Disturb John Bunch (Arbors)
by George Kanzler
These three musicians - all longtime jazz veterans
who died in 2010 - occupied different realms of the jazz
firmament. Pianist John Bunch, 88, was a
contemporary of Hank Jones, who also died last year at
91 and like Jones played for singers (Tony Bennett, in
Bunch’s case) and in Benny Goodman bands. But
Bunch eventually became associated with swing/
mainstream musicians and younger neo-swing
players. Trumpeter Harry Beckett, 75 and tenor
saxophonist Hadley Caliman, 78, were both of African
ancestry, but Caliman was part of the West Coast (LA
and later Seattle) jazz scene and Beckett, born in
Barbados, was a mainstay of British avant circles.
Of the three, Beckett had the most personal sound,
easy to recognize for both his ebullience and breathy,
cracked-ice tone and timbre. Maxine collects tracks
from five different groups, ranging from duos to
quintets, recorded between 1987-95. They show what
an adaptable stylist Beckett was, as at home in the
funky, replete with electric bass guitar, quintet of
pianist Chris McGregor as in duets and trios with
piano or piano and bass exploring the chanson laments
of Jacques Brel. There’s a hint of very early Miles and
Chet Baker in his playing, but also an adventurous
imagination akin to Don Cherry on his more avant
work in a quintet with a three-horn frontline.
Caliman’s Straight Ahead features his 21st century
Seattle working quintet, a band firmly in the postbop,
hardbop, soul jazz tradition. The program - typical of
the band’s gigs, according to the leader - consists of a
couple of band originals plus jazz and classic pop
standards. When he was coming up in LA Caliman
was dubbed “Little Dexter” for his fealty to Dexter
Gordon’s style but his biggest influence is early, prefree/modal
Coltrane. The resemblance is most striking
on ballads like “You Leave Me Breathless” and “Lush
Life”, where Caliman invokes Trane in both tone and
lyrical passion. The well-meshed quintet plays with
easy confidence and swing, trumpeter Thomas
Marriott a fine frontline foil to the leader. And the
musical approach, from the Horace Silver-ish “Cigar
Eddie” to Lee Morgan’s “Totem Pole”, is what is still
the staple of most jazz radio and regional scenes.
Like Caliman, John Bunch is a connoisseur of
repertoire and Do Not Disturb is filled with appealing
tunes, from the relatively obscure Ellingtonia title
track to standards, some well known some not, such as
“I’ve Just Seen Her”, “My Ideal”, “Bill” and “Get Out
of Town” to jazz evergreens like “Doxy”, “In Your
Own Sweet Way” (a Dave Brubeck gem) and
“Anthropology”. On this CD Bunch turns to the
instrumentation of one of his early influences, the Nat
King Cole Trio, adding guitarist Frank Vignola and
bassist John Webber. At times he and Vignola achieve
the close harmony or unison ensemble sound that
George Shearing borrowed from Cole. At all times
Bunch remains an elegant pianist with a lapidary,
limpid touch sustaining a bright flowing swing that
earned him one of his sobriquets: the Fred Astaire of
jazz piano.
For more information, visit jazzwerkstatt.eu,
origin-records.com and arborsrecords.com