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Blindfold Test | By dan ouellette<br />
caption<br />
Rudresh<br />
Mahanthappa<br />
For his first DownBeat Blindfold Test, alto saxophonist Rudresh<br />
Mahanthappa sat before a live audience at this summer’s North Sea<br />
Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Mahanthappa was a “Carte<br />
Blanche” artist at the festival, performing in his Apex quintet with<br />
Bunky Green, his trio Indo-Pak Coalition with Rez Abbasi and Dan<br />
Weiss, and his new South Indian-jazz fusion band Samdhi.<br />
Greg Osby<br />
“Six Of One” (from Further Ado, Blue Note, 1997) Osby, alto saxophone; Jason<br />
Moran, piano; Lonnie Plaxico, Calvin Jones, bass; Eric Harland, drums.<br />
It’s Greg Osby. It might be Art Forum, or it might be later because it<br />
sounds like Jason Moran on piano. This is very cool. I knew it was Greg<br />
right away. He has a unique sound, and something he played close to the<br />
beginning was trademark Greg. They’re doing interesting things with<br />
the time. It’s really flexible, but it has this tipping, modern swing feel.<br />
Phil Woods & Bill Mays<br />
“All This And Heaven Too” (from Phil & Bill, Palmetto, 2011) Woods, alto saxophone;<br />
Mays, piano.<br />
I have no idea who this is. But it’s someone who listened to a lot of Bird<br />
with a stylized bebop language. It’s interesting how when a fresh voice<br />
comes on the scene, their vocabulary becomes codified. I think of someone<br />
like Sonny Stitt, who in a sense cleaned up Bird. He codified his way<br />
of playing. Then after Coltrane, there were a slew of players who did the<br />
same thing. This tune is cool. I dug it. It was fun. It’s interesting to listen<br />
to how people approach a sax-piano duo. There are just two of you,<br />
so there’s a lot of room for interaction. [after] It’s Phil Woods OK, yes,<br />
there’s that Bird thing.<br />
Henry Threadgill Zooid<br />
“It Never Moved” (from This Brings Us To, Volume II, Pi, 2010) Threadgill, alto<br />
saxophone; Liberty Ellman, guitar; Jose Davila, trombone, tuba; Stomu Takeishi,<br />
bass guitar; Elliot Humberto Kavee, drums.<br />
I knew who this was before the alto sax came in. With that instrumentation,<br />
it could only be one person: Henry Threadgill. Henry is a gifted<br />
conceptualist and an interesting composer. He has a great way of<br />
putting together music and rearranging ideas—turning standard musical<br />
concepts on their side and re-examining them, then deconstructing<br />
and restructuring them and bringing into question what the melody and<br />
harmony can actually mean. It’s quite brilliant. Henry’s saxophone style<br />
is very deliberate, and he knows exactly what he’s doing. He never plays<br />
a line in a traditional way. It’s like an interjection.<br />
Charlie Parker<br />
“Light Green” (from The Washington Concerts, Blue Note, 2001, rec’d 1953) Parker,<br />
alto saxophone; Joe Timer’s Orchestra.<br />
That’s Charlie Parker. I’m trying to figure out what period this is by what<br />
he’s playing, how well he’s playing, how flexible his chops are, how<br />
spontaneous he’s playing. There are times when you hear Charlie Parker<br />
where you feel like he might be relying on what he knows, and then you<br />
hear other recordings where you hear him taking chances. He’s playing<br />
double-time and substituting chords and doing it all on a gut level. It’s<br />
interesting on this piece that is arranged for a big band where the group<br />
comes back in, and there’s a key change. It sounds like it takes Bird by<br />
surprise just for a measure and then he’s right on top of it. He was the<br />
king of playing in any key.<br />
Kenny Garrett<br />
“Giant Steps” (from Pursuance: The Music Of John Coltrane, Warner Bros., 1996)<br />
Garrett, alto saxophone; Pat Metheny, guitar; Rodney Whitaker, bass; Brian<br />
Blade, drums.<br />
It’s Kenny Garrett. I don’t remember what album this is from. At<br />
Berklee, me and my friends worked up an arrangement of “Giant Steps”<br />
kind of like this, but then a year later we heard Kenny do this. It’s nice<br />
to hear him this loose with the rhythm section laying it down for him.<br />
Kenny was probably the most imitated alto player from the late ’80s on.<br />
Paul Desmond<br />
“Wave” (from Pure Desmond, CTI/Masterworks 2011, rec’d 1974) Desmond, alto<br />
saxophone; Ed Bickert, guitar; Ron Carter, bass; Connie Kay, drums.<br />
I don’t know this album, but you know it’s Paul Desmond from the first<br />
note, whether you like him or not. I didn’t particularly like this. I thought<br />
it was cheesy. I was never a Paul Desmond fan. Maybe that’s blasphemy,<br />
but now that I’ve turned 40, I can say this. I never gravitated to his sound.<br />
I like music that’s more in your face and aggressive. But I’m a fan of anyone<br />
who has his own personal approach and style.<br />
Steve Coleman and Five Elements<br />
“Attila 04 (Closing Ritual)” (from Harvesting Semblances And Affinities, Pi, 2010)<br />
Coleman, alto saxophone; Jonathan Finlayson, trumpet; Tim Albright, trombone;<br />
Thomas Morgan, bass; Tyshawn Sorey, drums; Jen Shyu, vocals.<br />
Obviously, Steve Coleman. I’m a huge fan, beginning with Tao Of Mad<br />
Phat back in the early ’90s. Steve has been a great inspiration and influence<br />
on me. One of the great sources of confusion for me was approaching<br />
the music of my ancestry, to find a way to do it without selling my<br />
culture short. I didn’t want to just have a jazz quartet with a tabla player,<br />
and then call it Indian. That’s exoticism, not merging cultures or expressing<br />
bicultural identity, which is what I am, Indian American. Steve had<br />
taken wonderful concepts for West African music and put them in a setting<br />
that had nothing to do with African music. It was very inspirational<br />
to see how he engaged on a cultural level where he was breaking things<br />
down to their fundamental building blocks and then building them back<br />
up. Steve is always thinking of the next thing. He’s committed to seeking<br />
information. I would like to be Steve Coleman when I grow up. DB<br />
The “Blindfold Test” is a listening test that challenges the featured artist<br />
to discuss and identify the music and musicians who performed on<br />
selected recordings. The artist is then asked to rate each tune using<br />
a 5-star system. No information is given to the artist prior to the test.<br />
Jos L. Knaepen<br />
114 DOWNBEAT DECEMBER 2011