Tonight was a laid-back night at the Rochester International Jazz Festival, at least for me. While folks lined up to see the Preservation Hall Jazz Band or to get into the Montage to hear Dawn Thompson, my friends and I decided to kick back in the tent for an evening of feel-good, in-the-pocket jazz that drove straight down the road with no surprising detours.
The evening began with the trumpet — and, as it turned out, voice — of Byron Stripling. Stripling played the evening before at the Eastman Theatre with the winners of the 2006 RIJF scholarships, but tonight he was in the company of pros: guitarist Bob Sneider, bassist Phil Flanigan, and drummer Mike Melito. If those names sound familiar, it’s because they belong to three of the busiest men at the festival. All are backing multiple artists, plus the trio is holding down the house band gig at the nightly jam sessions. To add insanity to frenzy, Melito is even teaching his regular lessons this week.
The trio has played together hundreds of times, and it shows. They provided solid, swinging and intelligent support to Stripling’s trumpet on a set that could have come out of a Jamey Aebersold play-along book: “Confirmation,” “I Can’t Get Started,” “Honeysuckle Rose,” “Strike Up The Band,” “Back Door Blues,” “A Night In Tunisia,” “East of the Sun,” and “Kidney Stew.” Three of the songs (“Kidney,” “East” and “Back Door”) featured Stripling singing in a serviceable style a la the late nonexistent great Nat King Rawls Williams. Highlights included Flanigan’s bass solo on “Honeysuckle,” Melito’s drum work on “Strike Up,” and Sneider’s burning guitar throughout. The sound was fairly good, better than the tent often sounds, although the vocal mic was too loud.
The only part of Stripling’s show I could have done without was the intro to “Strike Up The Band,” during which he made a fairly condescending speech about how all drummers wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and “see Buddy Rich.” He made a few more snarky comments about drummers and eternal solos, then gave the stage to Melito, the drummer who, in all of Rochester, least epitomizes the problem he was describing. Ha ha.
All in all, a fun show with no challenges but a lot of nice music.
The 8:30 set in the tent was a pick-up band filled with talent: drummer Ted Poor (who played the previous night in the Respect Sextet), bassist Ryan Cotler, guitarist Mark Whitfield, and saxophonist Gray Mayfield. The band burned through some standards, including “Straight No Chaser,” the rarely played Coltrane composition “Like Sonny,” and “Trinkle Tinkle.” Mayfield was particularly impressive on “Trinkle,” weaving the tricky melody into his solo, aided by the sharp ears and sharper reflexes of Poor. I enjoyed Whitfield’s comping more than his solos, although those had their moments. The original lineup was supposed to include trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis, who had to cancel and was replaced by Whitfield.
Gray Mayfield was a good showman as well as musician. Recounting his conversation with Marsalis: “He called me and said ‘I’ve got good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?’ I said “Whichever, man.’ He said, ‘I can’t make the gig.’ I said ‘What’s the bad news?’ That’s how we joke down in New Orleans.” It’s always good to hear Mayfield. Kudos to producer John Nugent for bringing him back to the Flower City.
The hot ticket at 10 p.m. was Blue Note pianist Robert Glasper. Glasper was born in Rochester, although he moved away before turning 1. Many of his cousins live here, though, and a big family contingent filled several tables in the back of the atrium at Max of Eastman Place. Bassist Vicente Archer (who was with Karrin Allyson earlier this week) and drummer Damion Reid joined Glasper for a 70-minute set that felt like nothing so much as a John Coltrane recording. Not that it was at all derivative. It was more of a feeling, a polyrhythmic pulse supporting searching piano improvisations that explored the full depth of each piece.
Glasper began the set with a new tune that received the spur-of-the-moment title “Might As Well.” Reid used his tight snare (which sounded like a snare Amir Thompson from The Roots would use) to drive the music forward with quick jabs and longer rolls. The ballad “Of Dreams To Come” was gorgeously heavy, like a glacier glistening in the midnight sun. But the moment of truth was the half hour medley of Glasper’s own “Enoch’s Meditation,” coupled with a reharmonized “Maiden Voyage” laid over the changes of Radiohead’s “Everything In Its Right Place.” The middle 15 minutes found Glasper playing by himself, eyes closed, head rocking as he found more to do with two chords than seemed possible. After so much quiet meditation, it was as if the ceiling fell in when Archer and Reid jumped back in for “Maiden Voyage,” and then the rest of the room fell into the basement as Reid wailed through a solo over a static figure from Glasper and Archer. The crowd was on its feet before the song was even finished. A bright moment, and a bright future.
For complete information, including audio files, concert photos and more, visit rochesterjazz.com.
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