So how DO you see five acts in one night when four of them are playing at the same time? That was the question faced tonight, as the 6 and 10 p.m. sets featured Ben Allison, Jane Bunnet, the Tiberi/Garzone tenor duo, and the Joe Locke/Geoffrey Keezer group. All that plus Toots Thielemans and Kenny Werner at 8 p.m. opening for McCoy Tyner’s trio. Oy!
First it was off to Kilbourn Hall for a set by saxophonist/flutist Jane Bunnett. The effervescent Bunnett had an all-star band: Elio Villafranca on piano, Keiran Overs on bass and Francisco Mela on drums. The two Cubans were an inspired pairing, urging each other on from across the stage, and singing together on several songs.
Bunnett seemed visibly surprised by the size of the crowd and the enthusiastic response as she walked onstage. “That’s a really nice welcome,” she said. “Almost as nice the one we got at customs.” She took out her cell phone and said she felt safe in using it as a timer because “no one ever calls me.” She was saved from this precarious position by a good Samaritan with a watch he was willing to loan for the set.
Then it was down to business. Bunnett unleashed a long and flowing unaccompanied solo on the soprano saxophone, often lifting one knee in the crane stance known to fans of the Karate Kid movies. The solo became a rollicking quartet number, complete with call and response vocals. The second piece was “Ogere’s Cha,” a tune from Villafranca’s excellent debut album from 2003, Incantations. For this number, Bunnett switched to her wonderfully Rahsaan-esque flute, the raspy tone running through the hall like a broadcast from Cuban radio in the 1950’s. Villafranca’s solo climaxed with a two-handed trill that seemed to lift the stage a few inches higher, as the audience collectively willed the downbeat and accompanying cymbal crash.
Bunnett then dedicated “Joyful Noise” to the brilliant pianist Hilton Ruiz, who died on June 6 at age 54. Mela led the quartet with his wonderful voice and his exuberant drums, all the while with a look on his face as if he were debating an invisible partner. “Alma de Santiago” began with ruminations by Villafranca, then accelerated into a classic Cuban dance tune with vocals by Bunnett, Villafranca and Mela, and a soprano sax solo that had my companion exhorting the heavens for release. Cries of “Ultra, ultra!” brought the band back on stage for another wonderful Cuban dance number, and sent the crowd off to Jazz Street with a bounce in its collective step.
At the Eastman Theatre, pianist Kenny Werner and harmonica legend Toots Thielemans were alternately mellow and playful as they delighted the audience — and each other — with a set of standards, including “Summertime,” “Moon River/Days of Wine and Roses,” “In Your Own Sweet Way,” and more. Werner played both piano and keyboard, using a synthesized string section on several tunes. Thielemans regaled the crowd with stories of his nearly seven decades in the music business, dating back to his first record purchase — a Louis Armstrong album he bought in 1942 during the Nazi occupation of his Belgian homeland. “That was my first injection with jazz,” he said before playing a lovely version of “What A Wonderful World” to close the show. “And after seeing everybody and playing with everybody, Louis is still my main guru.”
Thielemans and Werner also paid tribute to John Coltrane, and by extension the night’s headliner, McCoy Tyner, with a medley of “Naima” and “Giant Steps”. The other tribute of the evening was to pianist Bill Evans, whom Thielemans referred to as “one of the traffic lights of my career,” by which he meant playing with Evans was a milestone for him. The duo sailed through “Blue In Green” and “Solar.” The 84-year-old Thielemans was a wonder to hear, and a true joy to see.
The main act of the evening, the McCoy Tyner Trio, suffered from poor microphone placement on the same piano that sounded fine moments earlier for Werner. The piano was often muddy, individual notes and chords losing focus in a wash of sound. Despite that, the trio played a robust set of mostly Tyner originals, including the vivacious “Angelina” from Tyner’s 2004 album Illuminations. Charnett Moffet provided the energetic bass, and recently un-retired drummer Eric Kamau Gravat kept the music moving with his undeniable beat, one cymbal suspended high in the air like an offertory bell at the Temple of Tyner. (For the fairly amazing story of Gravat, check out this article.) Had the lights gone out in the theatre, we all could have found our way to the exits in the glow of the smiles exchanged throughout the set between an obviously overjoyed Moffet and an equally charmed Gravat. Being in the presence of Tyner was an honor, but the real meat of the session came from his sidemen.
The final act of the night was a late set at Milestones featuring bassist, bandleader, composer, and all-around good guy Ben Allison. Allison — along with guitarist Steve Cardenas, trumpeter Ron Horton, and drummer Gerald Cleaver — played tunes from his new album Cowboy Justice, along with a few selections from earlier records. Every song was fun and interesting, but the two tunes that will make SportsCenter were “Green Al” and the encore, a version of John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy” with spaces so wide you could have piloted a hot air balloon through them. Allison also played the beautiful and haunting “Ruby’s Roundabout,” written for (scaring?) his 2-year-old daughter. Horton played his ethereal trumpet to great effect on “Roundabout,” and the closing minutes saw the whole band swaying on stage as if in a mild breeze. A fun and adventurous set of music by one of the modern-day visionaries of jazz.
For complete information, including audio files, concert photos and more, visit rochesterjazz.com.
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