Performers' antics jazz up show

By PHILIP BOOTH

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 2, 2000

Smooth jazz, as a rule, is happy and shiny but relentlessly bland, inoffensive and subdued to a fault. It's a distinctly monochromatic genre populated by technically competent but largely unimaginative instrumentalists who wouldn't recognize the spirit of John Coltrane if the man himself walked onstage and asked to sit in.

Just like your father's easy listening music, the modern version of the format offers a relaxing respite from the clatter of practically everything else on the radio dial. It's great for the office, perfect for those long elevator rides and suitable for romantic rendezvous.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, according to the product's loyal, enthusiastic audience of supporters, nearly 2,200 of whom showed up at Ruth Eckerd Hall on Friday night to cheer on saxophonist Boney James and trumpeter Rick Braun. The smooth-jazz superstars have joined forces for a summer tour in support of Shake It Up, a collaborative compact disc released May 30.

Still, how does one make contemporary jazz, typically studio-slick and overproduced, come off as exciting on stage? James, primarily playing tenor, and the more accomplished Braun, alternating between trumpet and flugelhorn, opted for lots of physical motion. They circled one another, walked together from the rear of the stage to the front, raised the bells of their horns together, faced off for overheated exchanges and strutted around like rock stars.

At one point, each musician wandered into the audience, criss-crossing aisles, walking over seats and greeting enthusiastic patrons. Fans stood and craned necks to catch that bit of offstage action, made possible by cordless mics.

The pair, too, pumped up the energy of their music with the help of five seasoned back-up musicians, ace players seemingly stuck with strictly scripted tunes, high-caliber hired hands able to show up their bosses if ever given the chance.

All Night Long, from James' 1999 Body Language CD, offered some well-deserved solo space to guitarist Rohn Lawrence, evidently able to rip out Eddie Van Halen-style fretboard calisthenics in his sleep, and Larry Kimpel, a monster bassist as adept at thumb-popping funk as he is at jazzy chords. David Torkanowsky, better known in the mainstream jazz world as a co-leader of eclectic New Orleans quintet Astral Project, also spiced up the mix behind the keyboards, although his own piano solo was placed too low in the sound mix.

The new Shake It Up was given its due, with faithful readings of smooth R&B riff R.S.V.P.; More Than You Know, with the co-leaders alternating portions of the melody; and a reverential remake of Grazin' in the Grass, Hugh Masekela's catchy pop-jazz hit from 1968.

James and Braun, regular guests on each other's albums, also dipped into the former's slinky Boneyizm and the latter's moody Notorious. The saxophonist grabbed his soprano and chirped away like Kenny G. on the title track from James' 1997 Sweet Thing album, a tune given a bit of much-needed earthiness by way of Kimpel's soulful vocal work.

Herbie Hancock's Watermelon Man was played during the encore, and the band turned in a reasonably tangy interpretation of the old jazz-funk gem. But it was really too little, too late. Smooth jazz, which bears only coincidental resemblance to the real thing, doesn't suddenly gain musical substance or emotional resonance when the music leaves the confines of the recording studio. Shocked?