One of the things I hate about most of today's jazz is the lack of melodic, rhythmic and harmonic charm that comes from a band/soloist exploring a theme that doesn't grate on your musical sensitivities.
Paradoxically, what I love about this album is that it doesn't incorporate the above ingredients except that it does! It does it in such a way that, whilst far removed from the old traditions, swings every bit as much as Goodman or even Bird did - they just do it differently.
The lessons of the past are all here but so is the future.
Matt Chalk, and Scopes, takes us to where Bird might have been had he lived to blow above a more modern rhythm section. Kenny Clarke, Max Roach etc. were pace setters but, had Bird lived long enough to play with Elvin or Philly Joe who knows what even greater heights he may have achieved? As it was, Trane and Miles carried the torch even if it didn't always shine as brightly as It may have done in Bird's hands. In fact sometimes it didn't shine at all!
However, I digress. Chalk is a new name to me but he has done his homework and must surely rate amongst the top modern UK alto players. He flows, his solos are meaningful. He plays alto as an alto was meant to be played although, maybe not as Adolphe Sax imagined. Did he, Adolphe, ever realise how much his invention would change the world - the saxophone was the jazz equivalent of the wheel? Chalk plays with the fluency of a person in control of his instrument and his head full of ideas.
Tixier and his confreres are with him all the way. I closed my eyes but I didn't sleep - I was in Birdland, Ronnie's, Smitty's, The Village Vanguard, Les Huchettes, that Club Montmartre in Copenhagen, the one on Railway St. in Newcastle - I'm in a good place and, if you like your jazz to be close to, but not over the precipice you'll want to check this one out. Lance
Available on Whirlwind Recordings WR4777
No comments :
Post a Comment