Players - Downbeat

The
Microscopic
Septet
Lobster Leaps In
CUNEIFORM 272
AAAA
Amidst the natty suits
and serious pronouncements
of the 1980s jazz
scene, the Microscopic
Septet’s arrow-throughthe-head
celebration of the music’s history was
sorely out of place—unfortunate for the financial
prospects of the Micros and the joyless
approach taken by too many of their peers.
Cuneiform’s two-volume, four-disc retrospective
of the Micros’ too-meager output was
perhaps the most welcome resurrection of the
past few years, only eclipsed now by the return
of the flesh-and-blood band itself. Lobster Leaps
In picks up where the Septet left off 20 years
ago, and if the musical climate seems more hospitable
these days, the somewhat grayer-haired
Micros aren’t about to let that get in the way of
them playing the scrappy underdogs, blithely
amusing themselves with a respectful tongue out
at their peers.
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy,
Douglas Adams described the confused lineage
Tierney
Sutton Band
Desire
TELARC 83685
AAAA
With a voice that
whispers, coos and
directs in soft-spoken
mannerisms, Tierney
Sutton sings and
swings her way through the 11 songs on Desire,
most of them standards. Her voice and the band
find a balance, with arrangements key to the presentation.
The opener, “It’s Only A Paper
Moon,” starts out with her barely audible voice
speaking the song into play with an arrangement
that emphasizes the instrumental accompaniment
through Christian Jacob’s piano solo. It
features sympathetic brushwork from drummer
Ray Brinker. The pattern is set, as she uses
sacred and religious texts to begin and end
Desire.
As with “Moon,” other songs are given rhythmic
makeovers, as when “My Heart Belongs To
Daddy” lives on as an uptempo swinging waltz,
creating the impression that this is a new song.
Much of “Daddy” hangs out in a minor-chord
world, creating an element of suspense. The
“daddy” theme comes up again with “Long
Daddy Green” and “Fever,” as if Sutton were
divining the presence of an all-knowing, loving
man in her life, her close-to-the-mic perfect-
64 DOWNBEAT April 2009
of one of his characters as
resulting from “an accident with
a contraceptive and a time
machine”; substitute “exhaustive
jazz record collection” for
“contraceptive” and you’ve got
a sense of this record. The
Micros skip merrily through the
century, finding an avant-garde
side street branching off from a
trad-jazz Main Street, beginning
with the modernist boogie-woogie
of Wayne Horvitz’s “Night Train Express.”
The remainder of the tunes were penned by
pianist Joel Forrester and saxophonist Phillip
Johnston, and range from the Cubist calypso of
“Disconcerto For Donnie” to “Money Money
Money,” which sounds like someone mistakenly
booked the Art Ensemble of Chicago to play a
1950s prom. As always with the Micros, it’s
gloriously, delightfully and inappropriately right.
Welcome back. —Shaun Brady
Lobster Leaps In: Night Train Express; Disconcerto For Donnie;
Lobster Leaps In; Got Lucky; Lies; Life’s Other Mystery; Almost
Right; Money Money Money; Lt. Cassawary; Twilight Time
Zone; The Big Squeeze. (73:10)
Personnel: Phillip Johnston, soprano saxophone; Don Davis,
alto saxophone; Mike Hashim, tenor saxophone; Dave
Sewelson, baritone saxophone; Joel Forrester, piano; David
Hofstra, bass; Richard Dworkin, drums.
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Ordering info: cuneiformrecords.com
pitch purring a subtle cry for more. It
doesn’t hurt that the accompaniment is
spare, with renditions that leave you
wondering what’s behind her delivery.
The sing-songy quality to Desire
makes for intimate cabaret, especially
given the cohesiveness of everyone
involved. That this has been a unit for
15 years is obvious, making Sutton’s
work seem all the more potent. It
allows her to be more expressive with
the material, as when she lays back almost
behind Jacob’s dreamy piano lines on “Then I’ll
Be Tired Of You.” It’s as if she is accompanying
herself as a singing piano player. When the
program falters it is more along the lines of personal
taste, with songs like “Fever” and “It’s All
Right With Me” lacking the imaginative, emotional
sizzle of songs like “Whatever Lola
Wants” and “Cry Me A River,” which explodes
after Sutton’s plaintive moan with the trio lunges
into another driving waltz before she returns.
Desire can be heard as cabaret, or as music
with a strong, cautionary message. That it can go
both ways is a testament to these musicians’
artistic abilities. —John Ephland
Desire: It’s Only A Paper Moon; My Heart Belongs To Daddy;
Long Daddy Green; Fever; It’s All Right With Me; Then I’ll Be
Tired Of You; Cry Me A River; Love Me Or Leave Me; Heart’s
Desire; Whatever Lola Wants; Skylark. (57:35)
Personnel: Tierney Sutton, vocals; Christian Jacob, piano; Try
Henry, Kevin Axt, bass; Ray Brinker, drums.
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Ordering info: telarc.com
Mike Holober and the
Gotham Jazz Orchestra
Quake
SUNNYSIDE 1205
AAAA
Covet Mike Holober, a big band composer/
orchestrator who doesn’t have to fire all of his
loudest guns on every tune, who pays loving
attention to textures, and who knows the value
of space and subtle dynamics. His band is
stocked with some of New York’s finest, and if
they don’t have unlimited elbow room, they
have awfully good material to interpret.
Holober takes his time exploring motifs and
compositional devices to any given track, yet
they’re never cluttered. His voicings are full and
he moves the themes, countermelodies and
backgrounds around in interesting ways. He’s an
expert colorist, in the way that Gil Evans could
load a chord or phrase with different combinations
of instruments. Movement—within the
chords, sections and ensemble—is a continual
source of beauty, like in the exquisite sense of
unfolding on “Roc And A Soft Place.”
While Holober allots plenty of space to the
soloists, the compositions and charts are frontand-center
here. Trumpeter Scott Wendholt
plays a behind-the-beat blues phrase in the
swirling funk of “Twist And Turn” that’s bracing
in its clarity. Holober’s piano choruses deepen
the wistful waltz “Thrushes.”
Like many contemporary big band writers,
melody is not one of Holober’s great strengths.
It’s refreshing then to see how he develops
George Harrison’s simple, melodic “Here
Comes The Sun,” and what the band does with
it. Alto saxophonist Dave Pietro plays throughout
much of the tune, running from wistful to
playful to swinging. The song runs from gentle
rondo to sprightly bounce to being a flag-waver.
Like all of Holober’s charts, the journey, rather
than the destination, provides the best rewards.
—Kirk Silsbee
Quake: Quake; Twist And Turn; Roc And A Soft Place; Here
Comes The Sun; Note To Self; Thrushes; Ruby Tuesday. (70:56)
Personnel: Tony Kadleck, Craig Johnson, Scott Wendholt, Joe
Magnarelli, trumpets; Bruce Eidem, Mark Patterson, Pete
McGuiness, Nate Durham, trombones; Dave Pietro, Jon
Gordon, Tim Ries, Charles Pillow, Steve Kenyon, saxophones;
Mike Holober, piano, Fender Rhodes; Steve Cardenas, guitar;
John Hebert, bass; John Riley, drums.
Ordering info: sunnysiderecords.com
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