TERENCE BLANCHARD - The Comedian
Blue Note Records
Terence Blanchard (tpt) Ravi Coltrane (ten) Khari Allen Lee (alt) Kenny Barron (pno) David Pulphus (bs) Carl Allen (drs)
Multi Grammy award winner and giant of the trumpet Terence Blanchard returns somewhat to his routes with his sixth release for the Blue Note Label. From his origins with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and a further twenty plus highly acclaimed recordings to his name he has now composed a stunning eight themed soundtrack to a film concerning a Blakey loving comedian (Jackie Burke) played by Robert De Niro soon to be on International release. From the semi fusion outings on Breathless (Blue Note 2015) he has returned to the similar territory explored in his 1999 release "Jazz In Film" (Sony 60671). Only drummer Carl Allen remains from the earlier septet but the leader has he has chosen the musicians well with Kenny Barron inparticular making a highly significant contribution. Terence Blanchard is of course not new to the film composers world with a Golden Globe nomination for the soundtrack to Spike Lee's "25th Hour" already to his credit among the fifty or so scores he has written to date.
The only word to describe this eight theme, forty minute offering is Magnificent. The whole score is provocative, atmospheric, and exciting. All the tracks could easily stand alone as pure jazz recordings outside of the cinematic environment. From the laid back easy swing over the opener " Jackie In The Rain" to the cool subtlety of the trumpet sound on "Jackie Get's Out", where the notes hang exquisitely in the air, everything bursts with originality and completely holds the listeners attention. Things move into the hard bop territory of the early Messengers bands with Ravi Coltrane's thrusting tenor on "Deli To Soup Kitchen" and " Electricity On MacDougal " where Kenny Barron's piano is at it's most strident. "Tit For Tat Nocturne" find's the piano answering the trumpet's lush opening theme as only that player can before we are offered what can only be described as a piano meditation for "Kenny Get's Out". The reed's come into play on the penultimate and slightly menacing theme of "Jackie's Lament", supporting the trumpet's opening statement, before Khari Allen Lee breaks through with swirling alto leading into the piano's calming close. All players are in unison on "Florida Salsa" which seems to resolve all the music, and no doubt the entire movie plot, that has gone before.
In some ways the music here recalls the soundtrack composed and played by Miles to Louis Malle's " Lift To The Scaffold" in the late fifties. In all respects it stands comfortably alongside it's great predecessor and unless the film itself is a true epic may well outshine it.
Reviewed by Jim Burlong
Blue Note Records
Terence Blanchard (tpt) Ravi Coltrane (ten) Khari Allen Lee (alt) Kenny Barron (pno) David Pulphus (bs) Carl Allen (drs)
Multi Grammy award winner and giant of the trumpet Terence Blanchard returns somewhat to his routes with his sixth release for the Blue Note Label. From his origins with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and a further twenty plus highly acclaimed recordings to his name he has now composed a stunning eight themed soundtrack to a film concerning a Blakey loving comedian (Jackie Burke) played by Robert De Niro soon to be on International release. From the semi fusion outings on Breathless (Blue Note 2015) he has returned to the similar territory explored in his 1999 release "Jazz In Film" (Sony 60671). Only drummer Carl Allen remains from the earlier septet but the leader has he has chosen the musicians well with Kenny Barron inparticular making a highly significant contribution. Terence Blanchard is of course not new to the film composers world with a Golden Globe nomination for the soundtrack to Spike Lee's "25th Hour" already to his credit among the fifty or so scores he has written to date.
The only word to describe this eight theme, forty minute offering is Magnificent. The whole score is provocative, atmospheric, and exciting. All the tracks could easily stand alone as pure jazz recordings outside of the cinematic environment. From the laid back easy swing over the opener " Jackie In The Rain" to the cool subtlety of the trumpet sound on "Jackie Get's Out", where the notes hang exquisitely in the air, everything bursts with originality and completely holds the listeners attention. Things move into the hard bop territory of the early Messengers bands with Ravi Coltrane's thrusting tenor on "Deli To Soup Kitchen" and " Electricity On MacDougal " where Kenny Barron's piano is at it's most strident. "Tit For Tat Nocturne" find's the piano answering the trumpet's lush opening theme as only that player can before we are offered what can only be described as a piano meditation for "Kenny Get's Out". The reed's come into play on the penultimate and slightly menacing theme of "Jackie's Lament", supporting the trumpet's opening statement, before Khari Allen Lee breaks through with swirling alto leading into the piano's calming close. All players are in unison on "Florida Salsa" which seems to resolve all the music, and no doubt the entire movie plot, that has gone before.
In some ways the music here recalls the soundtrack composed and played by Miles to Louis Malle's " Lift To The Scaffold" in the late fifties. In all respects it stands comfortably alongside it's great predecessor and unless the film itself is a true epic may well outshine it.
Reviewed by Jim Burlong
