New Year, Old Music

I have begun the new year by listening the last two days to the music of Wynton Marsalis' Septet on his seven CD box set "Live at the Village Vanguard" (Columbia 1999). While I have tried to focus on the unknown, the new, and the under-appreciated in my posts, I felt a strong urge to listen to Marsalis and to give him his due as a musician. 

There has been so much discussion about Marsalis, and his views on jazz, his feeling towards modernism, the third stream, electronica et al, that sometimes I think his actual musical contributions have become obscured and his music under-appreciated. I'm not sure it's "cool" to buy a Marsalis recording anymore, unless it's Branford doing his "Four MFs Playin' Tunes", a great recording in 2012, and that is really too bad. I've often noted I am not a critic, just a listener, and as such I get a lot of enjoyment out of many Marsalis' recordings, going back to his debut, through Black Codes, and more recently to his interesting collaborations with Richard Galliano, Eric Clapton, and Willie Nelson which while not spectacular are very listenable/enjoyable.

The "Live at the Village Vanguard" box stands out to me, with its recreation of seven nights at the club taken from his performances over a five year period that include welcomes and set breaks along with a myriad of great tunes and play by an outstanding band: Wessell "Warmdaddy" Anderson on alto sax (a personal favorite of mine), Victor Goines on tenor, alto and clarinet, Wycliffe Gordon on trombone, Eric Reed or Marcus Roberts on piano, Herlin Riley on drums, and Reginald Veal or Ben Wolfe on bass. The live sets allow the band to stretch out, to improvise and create, which takes many of the standards in new directions often with more passion and energy than heard on the more staid studio recordings. As a result the music feels fresh, even by today's standards; "Embracable You" spins out into some very modern sounding harmonies and interplay among the band members, while "The Arrival" provides a lot of room for some more mainstream soloing by Marsalis on a muted trumpet and by Reed on piano. The band covers a wide range of styles including New Orleans jazz, mid-century swing, and firey post-bop, mixing standards and some of Marsalis' own pieces, and each member gets to strut his stuff throughout the over 8 hours of music. And the audience clearly is appreciative at each performance; listen to them after Monk's "Misterioso"  for just one example of many. Other melodies include "Black Codes from the Underground", "In a Sentimental Mood", "I'll Remember April", "Evidence", and a rousing "Majesty of the Blues" and special trumpet solo for "Buddy Bolden."

Perhaps this is not an earth-shaking CD, but it is a terrific snapshot of a wonderful band playing some classic jazz in an iconic setting. To me it is a document worth having and enjoying.

Get to Know: Aaron Diehl

Aaron Diehl is a young pianist with a bright future, as evidenced on his most recent trio CD, "Live at the Players" (Aaron Diehl 2012), as well as a previous solo album recorded "Live at Caramoor" (CDBaby 2009). (There is one other early recording, called "Mozart Jazz" that I have not heard, which was recorded for the Japanese label Pony Canyon). Diehl has a classic approach to his music, hewing toward the tradition developed and passed on from Ahmad Jamal, Wynton Kelly, Eric Reed, Kenny Barron and others of that ilk; rather than exploring the outer edges of the tradition like fellow young pianists Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran, or Craig Taborn, to name just three who are coming out of a different tradition. This does not suggest a lack of imagination or excitment in Diehl's music; quite the contrary, he demonstrates clearly how the tradition can be expanded and improvised upon today.

Some background on Diehl. A native of Columbus, Ohio,  as a junior in high school, he was named Outstanding Soloist in Jazz at Lincoln Center's Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition. As a rrsult of this competition and others, he caught the attention of Wynton Marsalis, and immediately following Diehl's graduation from high school, Marsalis welcomed him on tour with the Wynton Marsalis Septet.  He then came to New York and attended Julliard, where he was taught by Eric Reed, Kenny Barron, and Oxana Yablonskaya, and from where he graduated in 2007.  He has been recognized by the New York Times as a “revelation,” and the Chicago Tribune as “The most promising discovery that [Wynton] Marsalis has made since Eric Reed,” His work pays homage to the traditions laid down by such greats as Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, and other masters but with his own distinctive interpretations and original voicings.

Diehl most recently was named the 2011 Cole Porter Fellow by the American Pianists Association, a major jazz competition. The jury members included pianists Geri Allen, John Taylor and Danilo Pérez, New York Times music critic Nate Chinen, and Al Pryor, an executive of Mack Avenue Records who will produce his forthcoming recording later this year, entitled "The Bespoke Man’s Narrative." 

Mr. Diehl has performed with the Wynton Marsalis Septet, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, The Boston Symphony Orchestra, Benny Golson, Hank Jones, Wycliffe Gordon, Victor Goines, Wessell Anderson, Loren Schoenberg, and has been featured on Marian McPartland’s NPR radio show Piano Jazz.

"Live at The Players" "Live at the Players" is a wonderful album, which pays homage to the great tradition of jazz piano but updates it with changes in voicings, interesting interpretations, and some outstanding improvisations and soloing by each member of the trio.  David Wong, my "Ace on Bass" from previous entries to this blog  and Quicy Davis on drums, play on all but two tracks. Paul Sikivie is on bass and Lawrence Leathers on drums for tracks 1 and 6. 

But the rapport with Wong and  Davis is really most notable, and really drive the music on brightly played cuts like “Pick Yourself Up” and “Green Chimneys”, the latter very comparable to the Kenny Barron trio version on the album of the same name. The trio has a very distictive, modern feel for  the music, and bring a great deal of poise and bravado to it.  Everyone contribures throughout the CD, and at times Diehl  is very effective in changing the feeling by dropping his sound down to allow his bandmates to carry the melodies. His restraint on slower songs lends an elegance to the proceedings, and  his fills are perfect on  the ballads as he restrains himself and never overpowers the others, playing instead as a trio of equals. The variety shown between the ballads and the upbeat songs make this a virtuoso showpiece for Diehl and a terrific listen for all of us.