DARIUS BRUBECK QUARTET - Live In Poland
Ubuntu Music UBU0033
Darius Brubeck - piano; Dave O’Higgins - tenor sax; Matt Ridley - bass; Wesley Gibbons - drums
This release comes amidst an upsurge of interest in Brubeck pére as his December centenary approaches: an appraisal of his work as a musician, but equally as a sort of jazz evangelist who took the music to places it had never reached before - the college circuit in the USA, and a range of destinations out in the wider world, including a 1958 tour of Poland - the first American jazz group to play behind the Iron Curtain. Szczecin Jazz invited Darius on a tour to commemorate the 60th anniversary of that momentous occasion, and this album is a document of the last night in Poznan’s famous Blue Note.
The occasion is loaded with meaning and the band rise to the occasion magnificently, whether on the powerful minor key modality of “Earthrise” or the bright bop of “Matt The Cat”. Dave O’Higgins plays with his customary full-toned precision, Matt Ridley is solid in support and flamboyantly virtuosic in his solo breaks , and South African native Wesley Gibbins is swinging and dynamic throughout, grooving subtly on fellow countryman Hugh Masekela’s ‘Nomali’ that shows Darius’ affinity for the gospel-flavoured chording of Abdullah Ibrahim. Brubeck junior shares his dad’s approach to jazz, eschewing the fast-paced flow of the beboppers in favour of a personal synthesis of an older generation of pianists like Teddy Wilson and Errol Garner with his favourite classical composers - ‘Dziekuje’, with its mix of bluesy phrases with a kind of deconstructed rhapsody, is a classic example, given an emotionally charged reading here: Ridley’s sonorous arco is the perfect complement. Darius was deeply moved to find that the Solidarity Museum in Poland associated his father’s tour with the beginning of the Polish liberation movement, and the final, inevitable ‘Take 5’ benefits from the audibly emotional commitment of the whole band - the tune is taken at a brighter tempo and you can hear Brubeck and O’Higgins pushing each other to reach for ever greater heights of expression as the rhythm section respond magnificently to create a really outstanding reading of this oft-cited, seldom played classic.
Reviewed by Eddie Myer
Ubuntu Music UBU0033
Darius Brubeck - piano; Dave O’Higgins - tenor sax; Matt Ridley - bass; Wesley Gibbons - drums
This release comes amidst an upsurge of interest in Brubeck pére as his December centenary approaches: an appraisal of his work as a musician, but equally as a sort of jazz evangelist who took the music to places it had never reached before - the college circuit in the USA, and a range of destinations out in the wider world, including a 1958 tour of Poland - the first American jazz group to play behind the Iron Curtain. Szczecin Jazz invited Darius on a tour to commemorate the 60th anniversary of that momentous occasion, and this album is a document of the last night in Poznan’s famous Blue Note.
The occasion is loaded with meaning and the band rise to the occasion magnificently, whether on the powerful minor key modality of “Earthrise” or the bright bop of “Matt The Cat”. Dave O’Higgins plays with his customary full-toned precision, Matt Ridley is solid in support and flamboyantly virtuosic in his solo breaks , and South African native Wesley Gibbins is swinging and dynamic throughout, grooving subtly on fellow countryman Hugh Masekela’s ‘Nomali’ that shows Darius’ affinity for the gospel-flavoured chording of Abdullah Ibrahim. Brubeck junior shares his dad’s approach to jazz, eschewing the fast-paced flow of the beboppers in favour of a personal synthesis of an older generation of pianists like Teddy Wilson and Errol Garner with his favourite classical composers - ‘Dziekuje’, with its mix of bluesy phrases with a kind of deconstructed rhapsody, is a classic example, given an emotionally charged reading here: Ridley’s sonorous arco is the perfect complement. Darius was deeply moved to find that the Solidarity Museum in Poland associated his father’s tour with the beginning of the Polish liberation movement, and the final, inevitable ‘Take 5’ benefits from the audibly emotional commitment of the whole band - the tune is taken at a brighter tempo and you can hear Brubeck and O’Higgins pushing each other to reach for ever greater heights of expression as the rhythm section respond magnificently to create a really outstanding reading of this oft-cited, seldom played classic.
Reviewed by Eddie Myer
