Frank Wess playing with (from left to right): John Lee (bass guitar), Yotam Silberstein (guitar), and Jimmy Heath (sax). Photo credit: Fran Kaufman
The best way to ring in a new year? A party, of course. If Frank Wess’ 90th birthday celebration at Dizzy’s Club is any indication of what’s to come in 2012, this year is bound to be a great one. Roy Hargrove’s crisp trumpet launched the festivities with “Dizzy’s Blues”, echoing the pungent, nuanced touch of Gillespie himself. As conductor of the aptly named Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band, Hargrove ebbed into rich tandem with the collective swell of over nine strings, saxophones, and trombones, and a powerhouse dose of five outspoken horns.
Once Wess graced the stage on “Without You, No Me” (composed by saxist Jimmy Heath, who also performed throughout the evening), the powerful set infused with vivacious complexity. [click to continue…]
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Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band,
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Cedar Walton (left) and Vincent Herring (right) jam at Dizzy's. Photo credit: Frank Stewart.
Can a jazz group jam without its spark? The Cedar Walton Quartet gave a definite answer at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola (Aug. 7): yes, but with only the momentum of a hand-pushed car— fluid, but never completely reaching a stride.
Playing a mix of jazz standards and tunes from their July release The Bouncer (Highnote Records), the quartet tumbled into the first few numbers with unmistakable fluency, albeit taking a delicate, muted spin off their hard bop style. Walton’s florid piano lightly mingled with bassist David Williams’s underlying hums, providing soft, unassuming accompaniment to the thinly metallic taps shimmying off Willie Jones III’s drum set. [click to continue…]
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Jazz at Lincoln Center,
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