Karl Denson plays straight-ahead jazz with amazing solos and John Patitucci
Written: Jul 10 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great solo work, with Karl and John Patitucci - nice trumpet from Ron Stout
Cons: Very much old school, nothing even vaguely newish here
The Bottom Line: Karl Denson has played with Lenny Kravitz and the Greyboy All Stars, but this album is nothing but pure sixties Blue Note style jazz.
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| deaser26's Full Review: Blackened Red Snapper - Karl Denson |
Karl used to just play straight-ahead jazz
Just last summer the buzz started, and they started touring again. Karl and the gentlemen with which he acquired a certain level of fame put the band back together and started hitting the road. They are even now still on the road, having been touring or in the studio for almost a year. The new Greyboy All Star band album is out and is called What Happened to Television and it is clearly as funky as their older stuff. They haven't lost a step, haven't gained a ton of steps, but haven't lost any. He is again playing with Robert Walter on keys, Zack Najor on drums, Elgin Park on guitars and Chris Stillwell on bass.
But before he teamed up with Greyboy to start a new genre, create deeply funky sounds and capture the imagination of every DJ from here to Auckland - he did four albums of just plain old jazz - and Blackened Red Snapper was the first. Karl is a fine straight-ahead player, combining a strong tone with interesting ideas - although it seems he is better suited to rock and funk as a genre choice. His jazz themselves albums are not bad, but not ground breaking or clearly innovative enough to warrant Coltrane-like attention.
Karl was coming off of having toured and recorded with Lenny Kravitz for a few years - it was his means of breaking out. But Lenny stopped using horn players at a point, and that was the end of that relationship. Karl was cut adrift musically, and then he started his long association with Fred Wesley of the JB Horns. Fred worked on his early jazz albums, and Karl worked on several of Fred's records, and then Karl hooked up with Greyboy and the rest as they say…is acid jazz history.
The cuts on this joint are Karl in an early stage of musicality, and putting a rock sax player into jazzman's clothes doesn't always work, but it fits well this time. Here are the tunes themselves.
1 - The Roundabout Karl and his trumpet man Ron Stout start out with a head that sounds straight out of a nineteen sixties blue note release. The band comps along and the melody is a little tricky but tasty. And then Deron Johnson comes in with Hanockesque piano chops. The trumpet solo is really the highlight of this tune with Stout doing his best Freddie Hubbard imitation, lots of hard bop scales. Karl is the star though and his solo is over a slowed down rhythm and then a Capella. He flies back and forth over nothing but air no place to hide. And what do you reckon, but that he cooks, flat makes it happen. And then we are back to the comfy and delicious head.
2 - Honey Lemon Tea Slower blues based number with sultry piano sneaking around in the beginning. Karl's voice on tenor is buried a little in the mix, and the bass seems to be playing the head - a gentle switch, Ron Carter style. This is early and tender work from John Patitucci, and if you've got a star bass player why not have him rock the house. The melody is just stunningly lovely.
3 - West New York Avenue Karl on alto and we shift gears to Reginald Webb on piano. The groove is a little faster and the soloing is be-bop to the max. Karl is taking a lot of big time queues from Sonny Stitt and Cannonball. A great capture of a bop dreamscape.
4 - Once in a While….I Dream Deeply melodic ballad here, with Karl laying down a tenor line. There is no stopping Karl from the melodic ideas he has gotten from the likes of Tom Scott and Dave Sanborn, the riffs and the phrasing are much more new school than old. So add a lot of blues feel to an old feeling rhythm section and you'll get the idea.
5 - A Minor Skirmish Very Blues driven melody and chords, dark and brooding. This is the highlight of the album by far with a delicious Wayne Shorter idea for a melody. This is something that could have come straight off of one of the early Art Blakey albums. This should have been a major jazz hit, a little too un-smooth for the latest incarnation of jazz radio, but a mind-blowing treat.
6 - Blackened Red Snapper Tribute to 'Nawlins and southern jazz to be certain. There is a Cajun jazz feel to this with a groove that would have been easier for Stanton Moore than anyone else. The trumpet and tenor solos are deep south, groove driven and jazz with melted butter dripping down the sides. Reggie Webb does the spicy touches with his flourishing piano riffs.
7 - Armageddon Remake of Wayne Shorter's classic. This is a lovely tribute to Wayne and Freddie, who made this song fly in 1962 or so. Karl soars through the head on soprano sax and then launches into an impassioned solo, complete with deep note bending, trills and pain. This is another highlight.
8 - Sue's A Butterfly A tender ballad with a whirling and speedy bridge. The emotions behind this song feel like they are based on romance and a romantic musical notion. Karl plays a stunning alto solo and again manages to capture a delightful tribute to Cannonball.
9 - A Race Against Time And we finish with a lightning fast hard bop joint with Karl again on Tenor. The melody is a parody of the name with the horns racing against the rhythm section. There is no easy way to listen to this, it just makes you giddy inside, but feels old time still.
Final Words
Karl is on tour with the Greyboy All Stars even as we speak, promoting their new release. He is coming to Seattle's Bumbershoot jazz festival at the end of the summer, come check it out.
This album is not easy to find, and cost me about 25 bucks on Ebay. It is well worth the effort.
Recommended:
Yes
Great Music to Play While: Reading or Studying
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deaser26
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...jazz was never meant to be a museum piece, under glass... Miles Davis
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