Ben Markley Big Band: Clockwise

OA2 Records
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Clockwise

All jazz fans know pianist, composer and arranger Cedar Walton. He was born in 1934 and immersed in the scene at the same time as Art Tatum, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, but was best known for his association with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Many of Walton’s charts are legendary, and are staples in the books of name combos and big bands throughout the jazz world.

Every tune in this tribute album by Markley is a Walton original.

Markley is a pianist, educator, composer and arranger; he heads the big band featured in this release. He’s an active performer in the Denver area, and is director of jazz studies at the University of Wyoming. He also teaches applied jazz piano and improvisation. 

His group here is standard: five reeds, four trumpets — including the famed Terell Stafford — four trombones, and a rhythm section of piano, bass and drums. Two tracks also feature guitar. This tasty result has earned rave reviews, including four-and-a-half stars from Downbeat.

Walton’s compositions were always swingers at any tempo, and Markley maintains that level of excellence. As an added bonus, the chord structure and changes made possible by the use of full reed and brass sections makes “everything old, new again.” The artists have been given plenty of room for solos, and they make good use of every opportunity.

I hadn’t heard Stafford for awhile, and had forgotten what a groovin’ horn player he is.

It’s terrific to hear a truly excellent band swing like this one. Purists who yearn for those good ol’ days — and the wonderful groups that rocked us back then — will find that this album brings back some great memories, and satisfies the soul.

Bill Cunliffe: BACHanalia

Metro Records
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: BACHanalia

This terrific album comes from Bill Cunliffe, one of the finest big band composers and arrangers in the modern jazz world. The music is performed by some of today’s best instrumentalists, and the result is a marvelous demonstration of what the “new” can do with the very “old.”

The core of this release is based on compositions by J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, Sergei Prokofiev and Manuel de Falla. Cunliffe has taken several of their most famous works, rewritten and arranged them into big band charts, and then gathered the most disciplined and swinging jazz orchestra that has come down the pike in years.

Two dozen artists are involved; the basic unit consisted of 18 performers, although the sessions were mixed and matched so that each was used on one or more tracks. Cunliffe conducts and serves as pianist on everything, as does drummer Joe La Barbara. 

The “classic” tracks include J.S. Bach’s “Sleepers Wake” and “Goldberg Contraption”;

Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, First Movement; C.P.E. Bach’s “Solfeggietto”; and de Falla’s “The Three-Cornered Hat.” 

Cunliffe’s re-writing and arranging is unbelievably excellent, and his keyboard skills are marvelous. The orchestral passages, support and instrumental solo work are mind-boggling. Pay particular attention to La Barbara; he’s a stupendous percussionist. He hits every emphatic phrase perfectly, has beautiful volume control, and drives the band like crazy.   

The other charts are equally great. A Cunliffe original (“Afluencia”) is joined by “Blame It on My Youth,” featuring trumpeter Terell Stafford and guitarist Larry Koonse; and “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” starring vocalist Denise Donatelli. She also contributes vocalese passages to several of the other charts; she has a gorgeous voice, hits every note dead-on, and is a true swinger.

This fantastic album is a must.

Terell Stafford: Brotherlee Love

Capri Records
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Brotherlee Love

Some time has passed since I’ve reviewed a “small jazz” (quintet)-sized combo that plays a truly pleasant mix of both new and standard straight-ahead arrangements, all of which swing nicely. Of course, with the artists involved here, that’s no surprise. Terell Stafford is one of the most gifted — and hardest-working — trumpet players to have developed during the past 20 years, and his pianist, Bruce Barth, has the same reputation.

Stafford was attending the University of Maryland in 1988 — to obtain a degree in music — when he met Wynton Marsalis, who recommended that he study with William Fielder (who, at the time, was at Rutgers University). During this period, Stafford joined Bobby Watson’s group, Horizon. Stafford subsequently played with McCoy Tyner, Benny Golson, Kenny Barron, Jon Faddis and the Dizzy Gillespie All Star Band, along with his own groups.

This album is dedicated to Lee Morgan, a sensational young trumpeter who, at 18, had joined Dizzy’s big band. Morgan was another icon who met an untimely death; he was shot to death by his common-law wife when he was just 33.

Morgan wrote seven of these nine tracks; Stafford composed “Favor.” “Candy,” the lone standard, is an Alex Kramer tune.

This is a “happy” album; you can feel the enjoyment projected by the artists during each track. Very often, even with famous names, the musicians can sound a bit bored, but that absolutely isn’t the case here.

This is the kind of group you want to spend an entire evening listening to.

Mike Wofford/Holly Hofmann Quintet: Turn Signal

Capri Records
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Turn Signal

Turn Signal emanates from the San Diego region of Southern California, and the album is chaperoned by pianist Mike Wofford and flautist Holly Hoffman. Wofford is the elder statesman, dating back to the time of the Lighthouse All Stars, Zoot Sims, Art Pepper, Shelley Manne and their contemporaries; Hoffman, after years of study in the classical genre, fell in love with jazz and began working with artists such as Bob Magnusson, Bill Cunliffe, Ray Brown and Mike Wofford, whom she married in 2000. They have played together ever since. 

Trumpeter Terell Stafford, bassist Rob Thorsen and drummer Richard Sellers belong to the later generations of jazz artists. Stafford, mentored by Wynton Marsalis, gained experience with the likes of Bobby Watson, Benny Golson, Kenny Barron and Jon Faddis. Thorsen tried many instruments — ukulele, guitar, flute, sax, tuba and electric bass — during high school, before settling on the acoustic bass. Drums have been a constant for Sellers, who also lead his own steel band. 

The tracks here relate to “favorite artists” with whom Wofford and Hoffman have worked during their careers, or to events and things that have been special for  them. Hoffman’s “M-Line” — the album’s up-tempo burner — refers to their dog, Emily, whose namesake is guitarist Emily Remler. Wofford wrote “The Dipper” as a tribute to Horace Silver; “Soul Street,” a chart done by Jimmy Forest, evokes Wofford’s time with Oliver Nelson. “Esperança,” written by Vince Mendoza, is one of Hoffman’s favorites; “The Girl from Greenland” honors the memory of pianist/composer Richard Twardzik.

The flute always has been one of my favorite jazz instruments, and Hoffman is — to quote another reviewer — “the standard by which jazz flute is being judged.” She swings beautifully. As for Wofford, Shelly Manne said it best: “Mike is outstanding — a musician’s pianist — and he inspires as he plays.” 

Don’t miss this one.

Bill Cunliffe: The Blues and the Abstract Truth, Take 2

Resonance Records
By Ric Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 4.2.09
Buy CD: The Blues and the Abstract Truth, Take 2

Oliver Nelson lived, and performed, during the key years of jazz.

Like many of his peers, he left us all too soon — born in 1932, died in '75 — but his contributions during that short span made him a legend. He played sax as an instrumentalist, but he was better known as a composer and arranger. He worked with many name bands during his life — Quincy Jones, as a notable example — but the classic album he released in 1961 made him famous: The Blues and the Abstract Truth.

Jazz musicians consider it in the same light as the tablets Moses brought down from the mountain. Nelson's album contained just six of his blues compositions, and they all became standards.

Pianist Bill Cunliffe, famous in his own right, is one of Nelson's disciples. Some time ago, Paul Lines, who runs the Pasadena Jazz Institute, suggested that Cunliffe should write some charts based on Nelson's album; the pianist did so, and he performed them at The Vic, a Santa Monica jazz club.

That session was taped by George Klabin, who later started Resonance Records. This album is the result; Cunliffe rearranged the six original blues and added two of his own compositions.

He has wrought a new classic.

The Take 2 band consists of trumpeters Terell Stafford and Larry Lunetta; trombonist Andy Martin; saxists Jeff Clayton, Bob Sheppard and Brian Scanlon; bassist Tom Warrington; drummer Mark Ferber; and Cunliffe on piano. It's a truly delightful group. The arrangements are excellent, as are all the instrumentalists.

The unit swings wonderfully, and Cunliffe has a lot to do with that; his solos are great, but the way he lays down chords — to back the melodic lines and other soloists — is exceptional.

This is the best album I've reviewed so far this year.