DARREN BARRETT ENERGY IN MOTION/Music of the Bee Gees: In which we find a set of the tyro giving back as he mentors a bunch of students from his alma mater and helps them find their voices as well. Tackling the Bee Gees might be a jive move in the ears of the jazzbo listener, but it’s a starting point everyone can recognize and it gives the non jazzbo a reason to come into the tent. All is well and all visions are well acquitted. While Barrett shows a different side from his driving quintet side, nothing is lost and the trumpeter’s versatility shows he’s much more than a legend in his own mind—which passes through too many times in today’s marketplace. Scoff if you must but this is no gift shop collection.
DARREN BARRETT dB QUINTET/Live and Direct 2014: In which we find the undisputed proof this former tyro was indelibly influenced by Miles at an early age. Kicking it out Miles style without being an homage or tribute, Barrett is in full command of his own voice and charts new trails from the point where the old one ended. A must for the turn of the 60s jazzbo that doesn’t feel a need to give it up, this is smashing set that delivers in fine and high style. Real jazz for real jazz ears throughout, this was recorded live in the studio with little room for error. Well done.
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I have wanted to make a project like this for a while, but the timing wasn’t right. Donald Byrd, being my mentor, has always instilled a forward thinking outlook, as he always did for himself. My previous recordings as a leader, First One Up and Deelings, showcased traditional skills in contemporary jazz and jazz composition. But I’ve been cultivating this project for several years. This project, Wrenaissaince, or rebirth, embodies a revisit to my compositional writing period when I was a student at Berklee. Furthermore, I’ve been studying production techniques, and felt that it was time to put it all together. This recording was a great challenge, as I wanted to do everything myself without going into a big studio. This meant spending a lot of time learning the programs that I used which were Reason, Logic, and ProTools. All the sequencing was done on an MPC4000. Another challenge was recording the live instruments, making sure that everything was tracked correctly, to make the mixing process easier. It was a wonderful experience, witnessing the process from beginning to end. It’s also more relaxing to be creative in your own environment, and to not be pressured by the clock. Read more »
Jackie McLean and Johnny Griffin at The Blue Note
The double features of the movie theaters of my misspent youth are long gone and baseball doubleheaders are a vanishing breed. So are double bills in jazz clubs, excepting New York’s Blue Note, where they’re the rule rather then the exception. When these pairings really work, they can be exceptionally stimulating, as in the late April-early May combination of Jackie McLean and Johnny Griffin.
Anytime you go to hear Jackie McLean, it is axiomatic that your emotions will be stirred. I have been listening to him from a night in 1949 when his mentor, Bud Powell, called him up on the Birdland bandstand to site in on “A Night in Tunisia” and can attest that he has never been less than passionate. These days, he leads a variety of groups, such as the septet of his latest recording for Blue Note – Fire & Love- or the more oft-heard quintet. At the Blue Note (no connection with the label) in late April it was the latter group, but with a couple of changes. Pianist Alan Jay Palmer and drummer Eric McPherson were still present, but Reuben Rogers (you may have heard him in Nicholas Payton’s quintet) was new on bass and Darren Barrett added another powerful voice to McLean’s broiling reinterpretation of “Lover,” the adrenalin ascended in a formidable display of sustained, hard swing. McPherson’s cross-rhythms accompanied the soloists with a battery of buoyancy. Palmer’s Bud Powell roots showed to advantage.
Barrett’s “Club Up The Block” was notable for McLean’s attack, jack-knifing and growling through a solo that put a lizard in your gizzard. There was more stark expressionism from Jackie in son Rene McLean’s “Dance Little Madissa,” but not without lyricism emerging as the light in soloarized clouds. Barrett, whose dexterity was demonstrated through the set, used space to pace his efforts here, and then utilized his high-note chops for an effective climax. Hotep Galet’s “Crystal,” a swift staccate line, serving as a signoff, found everyone taking a turn. Rogers is a more than capable soloist, to go along with his team work, and McPherson’s soloed with intelligence to match his ardor
Author: Ire Gitler
Boston Globe
Jackie McLean’s alto sax soars at the Regattabar
CAMBRIDGE – To borrow a phrase from one of his classic albums, alto saxophonist jackie McLean’s playing is one step beyond the bebop conventions his idol Charlie Parker defined, with sharper angles and an even more unsparing sound; and the band McLean is leading at the Regattabar this weekend, as good as any he has brought to town in the past decade, sustains his trademark attitude as it interprets the original material that provides a forum for the saxophonist’s searing inventions.
The speed and harmonic agility that define jazz modernism are second nature to McLean, although his urgency seems to leave his phrases scorched around the edges. Last night’s opening set was filled with compositions like his new untitled bossa nova and the waltz “Dance Little Mandissa, where the contrast between straight swing and latin or vamp sections presented opportunities to either reinforce structural signposts or play through them. His snappish “Code Five” was indicative, with McLean unleashing swift variations on the theme while the rhythm section played stop-time figures and then unfurling lengthier ideas when the band went into 4/4 time.
McLean’s ballad playing was more deliberate if no less soulful on “I Found You” a striking piece by his former trombonist and student Steve Davis, and “I Fall In Love Too Easily.” The fabled acidic McLean tone was even too sharp for the master himself at the start of the latter; but, after a mouthpiece adjustment, he turned the standard into an acetylene torch song, taking the immediacy of hard bop to the edge of hard core.
Darren Barrett is an ideal frontline partner who comfortably inhabits a role once filled by his mentor Donald Byrd. While Barrett won last fall’s Monk Institute trumpet competition by emphasizing his command of historical style, in the band he responds to the shifting, aggressive thrust of the music and delivers his most personal work to date. Barrett’s solos were unfailingly intimate, with a sound that could be mistaken for the warmer flugelhorn, yet he often followed the rhythm section to assertive and unfailingly accurate upper register climaxes without abandoning the prevailing sense of intimacy. His original “Covenant Agreement,” with shifting pedal points and a scale based bridge, and his crackling ensemble work indicated that Barrett is thoroughly in tune with McLean’s approach.
The other players operated in spirited overdrive, throwing provocative ideas at one another and the horn soloist, and pianist Alan Jay Palmer sustained tension by placing whip like right-hand figures over sustained patterns in the left hand Bassist Phil Bowler and drummer Nasheet Waits made their presence felt with vigorous supper and amazingly enough, not a single solo between them.
Author: Bob Blumenthal
Jazz Machine plays for the joy of the sound
Elvin Jones is a force of nature. The 72-year-old drummer conjures whole worlds with his sticks, pulling listeners into a prehistoric landscape of flowing magma, splitting fault lines and heaving mountain ranges. It’s a turbulent, contradictory world, where it feels as if you were floating and driving at top speed at the same time. And yet, for all its heat and commotion, everything makes absolute musical sense.
That’s an aural snapshot – an earshot? – of Elvin Jones Jazz Machine, playing at Jazz Alley this week, with a strong lineup that includes Darren Barrett (trumpet), Antoine Roney (tenor saxophone), Eric Lewis (piano) and Steve Kirby (bass).
There wasn’t much of a crowd this past Tuesday, but the few who came were glad they did. As usual, the group played just three tunes, with lots of stretching solos. Wearing a black t-shirt and standing with his arms hanging loosely at his sides, Jones did his customarily modest introduction, flashing an oddly boyish, self-effacing grin. But once he hit the drum set, the modesty vanished. On “E.J’s Blues,” Jones dug into deep, visceral feel, playing with the time like dough, kneading it, flipping it over, rolling it back out, but never for a moment losing sight of exactly where he was.
The star sideman Tuesday was Barrett, whose outstanding album last year, “First One UP” (J Curve), announced him as a force to be reckoned with. On Lewis’ tune, “Monk”, the young trumpeter played fiery phrases with crazy shapes and trailing endings, doubling back on his own ideas, then shooting up for high notes- and hitting them. Occasionally, he played for the pure joy of sound, squirting glissandos up and down, or burbling in a particular range. Lewis is an attractive player, as well, with nimble fingers and a hard-knuckle attack. On “E.J.’s Blues,” he engaged in a rippling game of rhythmic inversions with Jones, pushing the bang to a sweet climax.
The Jazz Machine is rooted in the ’60’, when the aim was to push the audience, in long thrusts, to new states of consciousness, something Jones accomplished on a nightly basis when he worked wit the classic Coltrane Quartet. Yet, increasingly, audiences have become impatient with the long solos, repetitious format and slow burn of this style, in which members of the band lay out for long periods. When soloists have a lot to say it’s fine. But saxophonist Antoine Roney – a fine, Coltrane-inspired player – took six choruses on “Monk,” and you could feel the interest wane. It may be too much to ask, at this late date, for a legend like Jones to change. But he might consider presenting arrangements with more interest, and shorter solos.
Author: Paul de Barros
Wrenaissance Vol. 1 – Attack of Wren ~ Darren Barrett
For anyone who listened to Darren Barrett’s first two albums, Attack of Wren will come as a surprise, if not a shock. This isn’t a bad thing. Barrett cut both First One Up and Deelings in the hard bop/post-bop mode, sometimes resembling the old Blue Note sound. On Attack of Wren, he abruptly switches directions, embracing a contemporary sound with an experimental edge. Citing Donald Byrd as his mentor, Barrett wanted to combine new technology – like an electronic valve instrument with studio techniques – and play most of the instruments himself. The opener, “Wren’s Theme #1,” gives a sample of what one can expect on the remainder of the album. There’s a thick rhythm section with an extra-heavy bass part and horns, in unison and solo, laid overtop. A voice calls out “wren” from time to time, adding one more element to this funky and intriguing mix. The ” funky” strain runs through several of these songs (“Come on Let’s Go,” ” The Way I Like to Do It,”) reminding one of late-’60s to- early-’70s fusion. The horn work, however, by Barrett, tenor Walter Smith, and alto Joseph Omicil, has a more contemporary edge. The odd voice work, occasionally run through a processor or synthesizer, also emphasizes 2004 as opposed to 1974. While Barrett’s old fans will probably be taken aback by this adventurous recording, it would be too bad if they passed it by. Attack of Wren shows how much fun a recording can be when an artist kicks back and cuts loose.
Author: by: D. Lankford, Jr.
Deelings ~ Darren Barrett
Jazz trumpeter Darren Barrett blew me away with his 1999 debut, First One Up. With his second release, Deelings, Barrett is making good on the promise and expectations for greatness as an instrumentalist and composer that he set into motion two years ago.
At the risk of being sacrilegious I must say that Barrett’s five-piece ensemble generates the same level of excitement, competence and vision as the Miles Davis Quintet during his Workin’, Cookin’, Relaxin’ sessions in the mid-50’s.
Barrett’s ballads, such as “Her Gentle Way” and “There Will Never Be Another You”, have a gentle expressiveness that carries an authentic depth of feeling. The upbeat melodies on “Eirlav”, and “Dee’s Theme” have a positive brightness that is tightly accented by solo work. “I Sent The Fax”, “Creative Locomotion” and “C Minor Joint” allow his band to explode with straight-ahead jazz, full of intelligent complexity.
Like all good leaders, Barrett allows the individuals talents of his band to shine by setting up large amounts of juicy interplay. Deelings is another fine release from what will hopefully continue to be a long and productive career.
Deelings ~ Darren Barrett
We are products of our environment. Darren Barrett chooses his. Strong influences have helped shape the trumpeter’s sound, and he seems determined to allow nothing to affect his choices unless it’s at the very top of the form. Clifford Brown’s legacy appears through two classic ballads. Barrett has refined his tone quality to the point where few can match the purity. The rest of the program consists of the leader’s hard-driving originals. Barrett’s hard-hitting, energetic approach recalls Freddie Hubbard in his prime. His exploring nature and colorful ensemble moods capture the exploits of Miles Davis, while his soulful emotional warmth and consistency derive from Donald Byrd. Barrett also exhibits overt traces from three unique artists with thom he’s studied; Clark Terry, Wynton Marsalis and Barry Harris. Donald Byrd’s protege, the 33-year-old trumpeter who won first place in the 10th Annual Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, holds two master’s degrees in music from Queens College in New York and is currently working on his doctorate. Born in England of Jamaican parentage, Barrett was raised in Toronto. The youngest of four brothers, he’s called by the nickname Dee. Hence, the title for his seconds album: Deelings. There’s more. Barrett has introduced one aspect of hard work with which we can all relate: overcoming obstacles. We deal with them.
The band returns from Barrett’s first album. Most of the artists have been together since 1995, and a significant cohesiveness is the result. Several pieces feature powerful rhythmic underpinnings that suggest a balanced team approach. Others relate an exotic impression that colors with an international palette. Barrett’s sophomore album ranks high on this year’s top ten and offers a distinct sign that there’s much more to come.
Author: Jim Santella
