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The Best of 1999/Live Jazz
Friday, December 31, 1999 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
From the exploding rim shots of drummer Cecil Brooks III, to the upper registers of trumpeter Roy Hargrove, to wonderful craft ballads of vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater, these were the jazz highlights of 1999:
(featuring Roy Hargrove, Sherman Irby, Gerald Canon, Larry Willis and Willie Jones) (Mellon Jazz, Hartwood Acres, June 12) Hargrove has emerged as one of best trumpeters of his generation. Throughout the concert, whether reaching for the trumpet's upper register or extracting the whispering, gentle tones of the flugelhorn, he allowed dynamics to define the group's ability to communicate. The best concert I've ever witnessed in the city.
(Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, Dec. 10) Excellence no longer is the key ingredient to achieving success in jazz, and yet nothing distinguishes great musicians from others like the ability to make music that's poised, passionate and poetic. Great jazz, like any great art, has no substitute. Shearing demonstrated throughout his performance, that he is one of jazz's most poetic practitioners. This concert was the best of the Guild's Living Masters Series.
(featuring Ruth Laredo, Dick Hyman and Marian McPartland) (Carnegie Music Hall, Oakland, March 3) The performers were separated by genres -- classical, pop and jazz, respectively -- and extrapolated the piano's tradition with style and grace. But they never overwhelmed the crowd with excessive technique and heavy-handed embellishments. Instead, they allowed cascades of eighth notes to follow ringing whole notes; dramatic classical figures flowed amid modal gestures; blues vamps became springboards to launch old-time rags and all manner of modern ideas. It was easy to get caught up in the euphoria of the music -- if you were there, you would have been.
(performing the "Obscure Works of Duke Ellington") (Mellon Jazz, Point State Park, June 17) It took some time getting adjusted to saxophonist Murray. His music is largely the antithesis of an easy-listening experience. But what emerges after you've had a moment to process all of its information and sidestep some of its viscosity, is music that yields enormous power and spiritual radiance.
(Graffiti, March 9) Bridgewater scatted the dust from vintage pop tunes and jazz standards, delivering each song with an invigorating mix of excitement and contemporary freshness. She connected with the large, enthusiastic audience with repeated gestures of friendliness -- a characteristic I feel compelled to point out because so many jazz performances have become platforms for musical self-indulgence.
(Greg Osby, Mark Shim, Jason Moran and Stefon Harris) (Rosebud, March, 27) No one could ever accuse Osby of being creatively moribund. His music flows in and out of jazz streams with harmonic authority and edgy inventiveness. But even in its volatility and startling arrangements, Osby proved throughout the concert that jazz on the edge doesn't have to be a battle with the inexpressible -- that even in its explosiveness and unpredictability there can be a level of stasis that's alluring to the most unacquainted fan.
(Carnegie Music Hall, May 1) Pianist/vocalist Diana Krall proved that although she's a few generations removed from the era of classic jazz singing, she understands its blues-based cadence. She can't help being aware that she grades out at the top of the jazz vocal class but seems determined never, as the late blues matriarch Bessie Smith warned, to "Play Second Fiddle." She provides a breath of fresh air to the music, and her complete absorption of the jazz vocal tradition is reassuring, especially when many of the century's great vocalists, such as Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald and Betty Carter, are all gone.
Unlike this year's jazz records, there were great concerts galore, and to boil those down to a few was quite difficult, especially since I missed a few (such as Ramsey Lewis). But here are my picks for the best of '99:
(Manchester Craftsman's Guild, Nov. 18) I first saw the band at Graffiti about a decade ago and was so disappointed with its seemingly unfocused show I felt like asking for my money back. Not this year. The L.A.-based quartet gave listeners everything they asked for and more -- virtuosity and versatility galore, as each member contributed tasteful solos with their ensemble work.
(Graffiti, July 20) -- Sometimes people forget that jazz originated as dance music, so in one sense the foremost progenitors of "acid jazz" took the music back to its booty-shaking roots. But the London septet best known for "Staten Island Groove" and "Brooklyn Heights" added an R&B vibe all its own that nearly tore the roof off the place during a show I only learned about that day.
(Graffiti, March 29) -- Ex-Journey drummer Steve Smith led the San Francisco-based quartet in a set of driving originals and covers dripping with musicianship. See Yellowjackets above.
(MCG, April 22) -- If you needed any confirmation that Scott can play the softer, straight-ahead stuff, you should have been here. The band didn't do tricks just to show off its chops, preferring to concentrate on playing music. That's what it's all about.
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