Jeff
Benedict (saxophones); Dave Askren (guitar); Jonathan Pintoff (bass); Chris
Garcia (percussion)
(Review by Chris K)
Benedict and Askren
are a US pairing who occasionally record with pals, but are not a household
name in the UK. Their game is to take
classics and give them a laid back West Coast work over, recasting rhythm and
arrangement, so much in some cases that the songs' own parents wouldn't
recognise them. Their previous 2017
effort, Come Together (reviewed here) jazzed up the Beatles’ number, and
"smoothed out" jazz classics like Nardis
and Moment’s Notice.
This time their
raw material is a varied slice of ten Wayne Shorter songs, spanning from Miyako and JuJu (1964), through the
title song from Miles in the Sky (1968) and on to a Weather Report number, Harlequin
(1977). They state that they don’t try to sound like Shorter, because you
can’t do better than the original music. Taking that at face value, the joy
here for me was re-acquainting (or listening for the first time) to the
originals, to better understand what Askren and Benedict have done. (Whether it
was worth the effort, you'll have to read through to the end!)
When I first saw
the CD title, I thought for one brief moment that the magnificent Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia had
released a new (or old) album! After
overcoming my disappointment, it did occur to me that the Shorter song may even
have been the inspiration for her band's name, as surely he was one of her
heroes : - anyone know?
The album kicks
off with E.S.P. (title track of Miles’ 1965 album). This has morphed
from a confident post-bop statement driven by Tony Williams’ skittering pulse
into a light bluesy funk, exquisitely and sensitively played on alto and
electric guitar, but with the immediacy of the original replaced by a relaxed
detachment. Yes and/or No gets
even more extreme treatment emerging as a slick mambo, with an array of Latin
percussion keeping it all ticking over effortlessly.
The slow jazz
waltz Iris and groove of Mahjong both retain their original feel with
Benedict’s soprano emerging as distinctive voice on the latter’s captivating
melody. On the other hand, Fall (from Miles’ 1967 Nefertiti) and
the title track are transmogrified into a 6/8 Cuban and slinky funk
respectively. Miyako and the closer, Infant Eyes, are played as
slow and tender duos, with Askren on acoustic. The 1977 Weather Report stalwart
Harlequin loses the synth layers and punchy tenor and electric bass, in
favour of intricate alto dancing over busy Latin percussion.
So, was it worth
the re-visit? Askren and Benedict are agile and adept arrangers and musicians, who
clearly had a ball with this clever homage to their hero. I’d recommend this
album for fans of smooth Latin and funky jazz, but I found their arrangements
rather bloodless. In most cases, the raw essence and power of the originals were
lost in the sleek West Coast treatment. Overall, I was left grateful for the
reminder of Shorter’s remarkable history!
Chris
Kilsby
Release date: 01.05.2020
Tapestry 76029-2
Format
: CD / Digital available “online everywhere”
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