Mark Buselli: Untold Stories

OA2 Records
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Untold Stories

For several years now, “jazz” has become an increasingly misused term. If you look it up in a dictionary, or Google it, you’ll note that every definition includes words like improvisation, syncopation, rhythm, beat and other terms that describe an American art form dating back to the early 20th century. There are, many genres of jazz: Dixieland, straight-ahead, bop, modern and fusion, to name but a few, and they all have one thing in common: They swing. Otherwise, it isn’t jazz.

To borrow the title of that famed 1931 Duke Ellington composition, It don’t mean a thing, if it ain’t got that swing. 

That doesn’t mean the music always has to roar; some of the most beautiful jazz heard is performed at balladic tempos. It also can be played at different time signatures — straight time, 2/4, 3/4 and so forth — because you can swing at any signature.

Granted, it’s not always easy to characterize jazz ... but to paraphrase an observation frequently made about another art form, “I can’t define it, but I know it when I hear it!”

Why this preface? Because far too much of the music being played — and marketed — these days claims to be jazz, but absolutely isn’t. Rest assured, though: Readers of this blog can be certain that everything discussed here is well and truly jazz. 

Untold Stories, presented by Mark Buselli and his quintet, is definitely jazz. The talented musicians — Buselli (trumpet) is joined by Danny Walsh (sax), Steve Allee (piano), Jeremy Allen (bass) and Steve Houghton (drums) — also are associated with universities and schools in teaching positions. The name artists with whom they’ve worked would cover an entire page; their experience includes both small and large groups in the jazz and classical fields, and they’re also prodigious composers and arrangers.

Six of these seven tunes are originals by members of the group; Buselli did two, with four from Allee. The only neo-standard is the seldom-heard “Angelica,” which came from a session Ellington shared with John Coltrane. One of the charts — “Claude” — is done as a ballad; the rest are mid- to up-tempo tunes that make it impossible to keep your fingers and feet at rest. The rhythm section is as tight as they come, the result of these guys having played together over a period of years. The solo work is thoughtful and masterful.

This is the way a lot of jazz used to sound, and this album proves that a lot of artists Out There still care about that very thing.

The AHA! Quintet: Freespace

Jazz Compass
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Freespace

When one thinks about jazz locales, New York City, Chicago, New Orleans, Los Angeles and Seattle generally come to mind; they’re the key areas where the art form has developed, and each has produced a distinct style. That said, jazz musicians have come from every part of the country (and, lately, every part of the world). 

The core members of the AHA! Quintet — pianist Steve Allee, bassist Jeremy Allen and drummer Steve Houghton — have the state of Indiana in common: Allee is an Indianapolis native, while Allen and Houghton are faculty members at Indiana University. For this album, that trio added a couple of stellar artists: Clay Jenkins, on trumpet; and Bob Sheppard, who plays most of the reed instruments. All these gentlemen have performed and recorded with various jazz greats: Freddie Hubbard, Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Chick Corea, Count Basie and many others.

Allee composed and arranged all but one of this album’s tunes; the exception is the beautiful old standard, “Never Never Land,” delivered by his trio. The larger quintet’s musical style is tightly arranged jazz, more like that of the so-called West Coast sound, than the “looser” East Coast genre. The ensemble work for the melodic lines is relatively complex — obviously written, as opposed to “head” arrangements — and everything is rehearsed to perfection. Each musician gets plenty of solo space, and the performances are exceptional. It all meshes and swings wonderfully.

This is a great group, and it delivers imaginative stuff.