By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Requiem for a Jazz Lady
Only
folks with a great memory — or those who hail from Cleveland, Ohio — are likely
to be familiar with tenor saxist Ernie Krivda. Born in 1945 in that city, his
first job with a name orchestra was when, at age 18, he joined the Jimmy Dorsey
band. As the years passed, Krivda’s primary experience came with “territory
groups” in and around Cleveland. In the 1970s he became the leader of the house
band at the Smiling Dog Saloon, where he shared the stage with Chick Corea,
Herbie Hancock and others.
Flash-forward
to the present day: Krivda has recorded close to a score of albums, is artistic
director of the Cuyahoga Community College Jazz Studies Program, and is a
touring clinician for the Yamaha Instrument Company.
His
style takes us back to earlier jazz years; he has a “big” tone on his horn, and
plays with a noticeable vibrato that evokes artists such as Coleman Hawkins.
Krivda doesn’t have the “smooth” sound of (for example) Stan Getz, but nonetheless
is a real swinger in every sense.
This
album contains seven charts, only one of which — “I’ll Close My Eyes” — is a
standard; the rest are Krivda originals that run the genre gamut: some blues, a
waltz, a funky swinger, and a couple of gorgeous ballads. He’s joined by
pianist Lafayette Carthon, bassist Marion Hayden, and drummer Renell Gonsalves.
You’d love to watch this quartet jam at the end of the day.
We
don’t usually think of Cleveland as a jazz town, but it’s the center of a Midwest
circuit that includes Pittsburgh, Columbus, Detroit and Chicago; all have a
rich history of jazz groups and musicians.
This
release helps us appreciate how relatively easy it has become to produce an
album readily available to “the masses.” In olden times, scores (hundreds?) of
individuals and groups created quite palatable jazz that went unnoticed outside
of the areas where they lived and performed.
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