NYSQ - Heaven Steps To Seven
(NEW YORK STANDARDS QUARTET)
Whirlwind WR4727
Tim Armacost - tenor & soprano sax; David Berkman - piano; Gonna Okegwo - bass; Gene Jackson - drums
Hot on the heels of their 2017 issue comes another typically vigorous NYSQ exploration of the standards tradition, recorded off the back of a week-long tour, with the band in fine fettle, simply bursting with ideas and energy. While ‘Power Of 10’ featured a number of contrafacts and ‘Sleight Of Hand’ returned to the unmediated hits of the Great American Songbook, this new offering includes a sprinkling of additions from the jazz composers’ repertoire. Charlie Parker’s ‘Cheryl’ is deconstructed by Berkman, to include a feature for new guy Okegwo on bass and a Hancock-esque straight-8s groove section with reharms - Horace Silver’s ‘Peace’ is expanded on by the entire quartet in a group improv that uses shards of the melody as motivic cells alongside chordal harmony as a starting point, according the finest modern methodologies, and sounds absolutely fresh as a result; Bud Powell’s solo ballad ‘I’ll Keep Loving You” is arranged for the quartet with ravishing results; and Hancock’s own ‘Eye Of The Hurricane’ is feistily presented by Gene Jackson (Hancock’s drummer of many years) as a burning finale.
There’s still a plentiful array of Songbook standards for the quartet to get their collective teeth into as well - ‘If I Should Lose You’ is a turned into a latin-flavoured, densely arranged soprano feature, full of complex harmonies - ‘Every Time We say Goodbye’ showcases Armacost’s supremely controlled delivery on tenor over a rhythm section that seems forever poised on the brink of runaway abandon; ‘I Love You’ features new guy in the studio (but longtime touring associate) Okegwo again, in a boisterously oblique arrangement by Jackson that edges close to freedom while still retaining the contours of the original. This is document of a band at the absolute top of their game, showing how the standards tradition can still provide a vehicle for some of the freshest and most exciting playing on the scene today.
Reviewed by Eddie Myer
(NEW YORK STANDARDS QUARTET)
Whirlwind WR4727
Tim Armacost - tenor & soprano sax; David Berkman - piano; Gonna Okegwo - bass; Gene Jackson - drums
Hot on the heels of their 2017 issue comes another typically vigorous NYSQ exploration of the standards tradition, recorded off the back of a week-long tour, with the band in fine fettle, simply bursting with ideas and energy. While ‘Power Of 10’ featured a number of contrafacts and ‘Sleight Of Hand’ returned to the unmediated hits of the Great American Songbook, this new offering includes a sprinkling of additions from the jazz composers’ repertoire. Charlie Parker’s ‘Cheryl’ is deconstructed by Berkman, to include a feature for new guy Okegwo on bass and a Hancock-esque straight-8s groove section with reharms - Horace Silver’s ‘Peace’ is expanded on by the entire quartet in a group improv that uses shards of the melody as motivic cells alongside chordal harmony as a starting point, according the finest modern methodologies, and sounds absolutely fresh as a result; Bud Powell’s solo ballad ‘I’ll Keep Loving You” is arranged for the quartet with ravishing results; and Hancock’s own ‘Eye Of The Hurricane’ is feistily presented by Gene Jackson (Hancock’s drummer of many years) as a burning finale.
There’s still a plentiful array of Songbook standards for the quartet to get their collective teeth into as well - ‘If I Should Lose You’ is a turned into a latin-flavoured, densely arranged soprano feature, full of complex harmonies - ‘Every Time We say Goodbye’ showcases Armacost’s supremely controlled delivery on tenor over a rhythm section that seems forever poised on the brink of runaway abandon; ‘I Love You’ features new guy in the studio (but longtime touring associate) Okegwo again, in a boisterously oblique arrangement by Jackson that edges close to freedom while still retaining the contours of the original. This is document of a band at the absolute top of their game, showing how the standards tradition can still provide a vehicle for some of the freshest and most exciting playing on the scene today.
Reviewed by Eddie Myer
