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The Clearwater Jazz Holiday is jammed with performances, starting Thursday evening and running through Sunday night.
By PHILIP BOOTH
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 18, 2001
THURSDAY
Bogus Pomp (6 p.m.) These premiere interpreters of Frank Zappa's music have variously hooked up with the Florida Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic and a cappella ensemble the Persuasions for concerts devoted to the work of the late rock and classical composer. The 10-piece group is centered on the singing of former Zappa band member Napoleon Murphy Brock and the high-energy guitar work of Jerry Outlaw. The Tampa Bay-area group includes members of SHIM and a variety of other bands.
Cecil Brooks III (7:15 p.m.) A well-respected New York drummer, Brooks has worked with the likes of saxophonist Greg Osby, pianist Geri Allen and drummer Lonnie Plaxico. Brooks specializes in hard bop and bebop originals and standards. His latest disc, Live at Sweet Basil, with a band including saxophonist Don Braden and pianist John Hicks, was recorded at the famed Greenwich Village nightclub, which has since shifted away from booking jazz. Brooks will be joined by a group including trumpeter Riley Mullins, alto saxophonist Bruce Williams and organist Radam Schwartz.
Jane Monheit (8:45 p.m.) See interview.
Chuck Owen and the Jazz Surge (6 p.m.) Led by Owen, a pianist, composer and longtime University of South Florida jazz studies professor, Jazz Surge is a blue-chip big band featuring some of Florida's finest musicians. Owen, recipient of this year's ASCAP/International Association of Jazz Educators commission in honor of Louis Armstrong, debuted the resultant piece, Red Beans and Ricely Yours, at this year's IAJE conference in New York.
Owen, who has composed and/or arranged music for everyone from the Smithsonian Masterworks Orchestra to rockers Seven Mary Three to the old Tonight Show orchestra, released his debut Surge disc on the Seabreeze label in 1996. Madcap, the followup, released in March on Seabreeze, features four ambitious original compositions and arrangements of the standards But Beautiful and Beautiful Love. The disc boasts guest shots by guitarist John Abercrombie and trumpeter Tim Hagans and solos by talented area players, including tenor saxophonist Jack Wilkins, alto saxophonist Valerie Gillespie and bassist Mark Neuenschwander, all affiliated with the USF jazz program.
John Scofield (7:30 p.m.) Scofield, one of the jazz world's most gifted, well-rounded guitarists, in recent years has alternated between the heady postbop of discs such as this year's Works for Me and the funk and open-wide improv of A Go Go, a 1998 collaboration with jazzy jam band Medeski Martin and Wood. His burr-edged, slightly overdriven sound is instantly identifiable. For the Jazz Holiday, he'll be joined by a band including guitarist Avi Bortnick, bassist Jesse Murphy and drummer Adam Deitch.
Scofield joined late tenor master Joe Henderson for 1992's So Near, So Far (Musings for Miles) and played with an all-star group on Herbie Hancock's The New Standard, released in 1996. A native of Ohio, he made important career connections while studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston, gained experience with Charles Mingus, Dave Liebman and Gary Burton and made his name during an early-'80s stint with Miles Davis.
The guitarist in 1985 hooked up with former P-funk drummer Dennis Chambers and bassist Gary Grainger for a series of performances and recordings that focused on the heavy funk side of jazz. Scofield subsequently has alternated mainstream work with funk projects and typically shares critics' poll honors with the likes of Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell.
Nnenna Freelon (9:15 p.m.) Once tagged as a Sarah Vaughan imitator, Freelon made her debut in 1992 with a self-titled disc that had the singer backed by a string orchestra for a set dominated by standards. Over the years, she's toured with George Benson, T.S. Monk, Al Jarreau, Ray Charles and Tony Bennett.
In recent years, the Massachusetts-born singer has upped her standing among jazz fans, with a series of well-regarded releases on the Concord label, including 1996's Shaking Free.
On last year's Soulcall, she pointedly expanded her palette, singing alongside first-call jazz players Chris Potter (sax) and Ray Drummond (bass), a cappella group Take 6 and various studio cats on a program incorporating jazz, gospel, pop and R&B.
Suzette Jennings and Moodswingz (noon) Led by Detroit-born singer Jennings, this high-energy local outfit specializes in mixing it up, with a repertoire encompassing R&B, contemporary jazz, classic soul and jazz standards. The entertainer's core band includes keyboardist Janet Street, drummer Michael James and bassist Mike Foley. For the Jazz Holiday, Jennings will also be joined by guitarist Vincent Sims, saxophonist Mike MacArthur and percussionist Doug Werner.
Richard Smith (1:30 p.m.) Los Angeles-based guitarist Smith is a smooth jazz favorite, having worked with saxophonists Richard Elliot and Kirk Whalum and trumpeter Rick Braun. Smith, chairman of the studio jazz guitar program at the University of Southern California, has participated in the popular "Guitars, Sax and More" tour. The guitarist, adept on electric and nylon string, released his latest disc, Flow, in 1999, on the Heads Up label.
Bellevue Cadillac (3:15 p.m.), Jazz Holiday favorites, return for another set of neo-swing, Memphis soul, R&B, gospel and party music. The group racked up admiring reviews for its 1998 disc Prozac Nation, produced by Rolling Stones knobs man Rob Fraboni. Blow Wind Blow, an island-tinted tune from that CD, is slated to appear on the soundtrack of the Farrelly Brothers' forthcoming film comedy Shallow Hal.
The Russell Malone Quartet (5 p.m.). Led by the ferociously talented Georgia-born guitarist, this act could deliver the sleeper set of the festival. Malone, a superb interpreter and improviser, may be best known to audiences through his work with Harry Connick Jr. and Diana Krall, including the latter's new The Look of Love and her monster-selling late '90s discs.
But the six-stringer, veteran of a two-year stint with organ great Jimmy Smith, has been releasing A-grade solo discs for a decade. He's appeared on albums by Kenny Barron, Don Braden, Ray Brown, Gary Burton, Roy Hargrove, Shirley Horn, Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis and others. He was seen in Robert Altman's 1995 film Kansas City and heard on its soundtrack.
Malone, to be joined by pianist Richard Johnson, bassist Richie Goods and drummer E.J. Strickland, likely will emphasize music from the new Heartstrings album. His latest disc is all after-hours romance, with the leader and an all-star rhythm section backed by a full string orchestra for a set of standards. The guitarist makes a nod or two to the classic Wes Montgomery sound, but he does his own thing.
The Irvin Mayfield Quintet (6:45 p.m.) New Orleans-born trumpeter Mayfield is hoping to make his mark as the next hot young horn man in the tradition of Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard and Nicholas Payton. His time slot, right after Malone, makes it 2-for-2 for fans of uncompromising, straight-ahead jazz.
Mayfield, also co-leader of Los Hombres Calientes, will be joined by saxophonist Aaron Fletcher, pianist Peter Martin and LHC regulars Jaz Sawyer (drums) and Edwin Livingston (bass) for a program that probably will include music from How Passion Fails, a ballads-dominated CD that has the trumpeter offering a kind of salute to the Wynton approach, circa 15 years ago.
Mayfield, a product of the jazz program at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, made his recording debut in 1999, with Live at the Blue Note and a self-titled disc on New Orleans' Basin Street Records. He's performed and/or recorded with practically all of the Marsalises, along with Blanchard, Payton, Quincy Jones, Chucho Valdes and Ani DiFranco.
Boney James (8:45 p.m.), a bona fide smooth-jazz star, had listeners hanging on to his every note at a recent Ruth Eckerd Hall show with trumpeter Rick Braun. The saxophonist, born James Oppenheim in Massachusetts, went the way of the funk for his eighth CD, this year's Ride.
He invited Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson, hotshot drummer with the Roots, along for the ride, as well as vocalists Jaheim, Dave Hollister and Trina Broussard, songwriter Rex Rideout (Luther Vandross, Angie Stone) and ex-Miles Davis bassist Marcus Miller.
"I feel I've succeeded in incorporating more of an urban flavor, 'cause my roots are firmly in R&B," James has said of the CD. "I grew up listening to Stevie (Wonder), Earth, Wind and Fire, Grover Washington Jr., Ronnie Laws, and these days you'll find me listening to Jill Scott, D'Angelo and other retro soul artists. And my history as a touring musician was with R&B bands."
The Michael Ross Quartet (1 p.m.), Led by gifted Tampa bassist Michael Ross, this is one of the area's most reliable and creative jazz groups, a collective of top-shelf players committed to playing thoughtful, inspired original music. Ross, guitarist LaRue Nickelson, tenor and soprano saxophonist David Pate and drummer Tom Carabasi have all played together in various combinations over the years, and they made their recording debut with this year's Doghouse. The disc, built around the compositions of Ross and Nickelson, alternates churning postbop burners with ballads. The CD was recently featured on the internationally distributed Jazz South radio show and has gained substantial airplay on WUSF-FM 89.7 and other stations around the country. The Jazz Holiday is the first of two high-profile shows for the group; Wednesday, they play the opening night of the Verizon Music Festival at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.
Orquesta Infinidad (2:45 p.m.), making a return to the Jazz Holiday, is an 11-piece band that blends traditional Cuban son with contemporary salsa and jazz. The group, founded by Cuban-born trumpeter Pedro Bullaudy, features two singers (male and female) and three horns. Orquesta Infinidad's most recent CD is the nine-song El Rio.
Los Hombres Calientes (4:30 p.m.) Co-led by trumpeter Irvin Mayfield and Headhunters percussionist Bill Summers, LHC is back for another combustible mix of Latin jazz, funk and African music. The group this time has expanded to an octet, with Mayfield and Summers joined by regular cohorts singer-percussionist Yvette Summers, keyboardist Ronald Markham, drummer Ricky Sebastian and three other musicians.
The group's latest disc, Vol. 3, New Congo Square, is an ambitious musical travelogue, with stops in New Orleans, Jamaica, Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Cuba. The guest list includes trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis, Burning Spear, ex-Dead guitarist Bob Weir, bassist Rob Wasserman, trumpeters Kermit Ruffins and Michael Ray, and members of Irakere, the Rebirth Brass Band and Coolbone. For the CD, the group mixes original compositions with a cover of Bob Marley's I Shot the Sheriff and a tribute to Curtis Mayfield, New Bus Stop.
"We're stepping it up," Summers said during an interview. "We don't want to be restrictive. As Irvin puts it, we have a jazz format, but we reach out to the world. That includes music from the Middle East, North Africa, West Africa. . . . It's all fair game to us. It's all worth exploring. We're playing something that's real accessible to the people. We're not doing anything new. But the way that we're mixing it up, the way that we're putting it together, is different."
Poncho Sanchez (6:30 p.m.) Another Jazz Holiday returnee, Sanchez is a legend of jazz, a master conga player and veteran bandleader with a recording career going back to the mid '70s, when the Texas-born percussionist joined the band of famed vibraphonist Cal Tjader.
For his latest disc, this year's Latin Spirits, Sanchez collaborated with jazz piano great Chick Corea (a Clearwater-area resident) on the title track and the Wayne Shorter-penned Juju. For the Jazz Holiday, the percussionist will be joined by his regular band, including longtime associates Ramon and Tony Banda on timbales and bass, trumpeter Sal Cracchiolo, pianist David Torres, bongo player Jose Rodriguez and two additional horn players.
His sound, he says, is a mix of seemingly disparate elements. "It would be a combination of rhythm and blues, the early rhythm and blues, the soul sound, the soul years, definitely, the authentic mambo and cha-cha-cha, and definitely the straight-ahead jazz sound, the Blue Note sound, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, all those things in one," he told Jazzweekly.com. "That's Poncho's soul. That's the stuff I love."