Take a Little Trip: Jason Palmer Plays Minnie Riperton (SteepleChase)
Jason Palmer
Released October 30, 2012
Allmusic Favorite Jazz Albums 2012
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_m7_0SH5Fv6TyUUo8z3BGN3bNAJ1GPfFaQ
Spotify:
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About:
Jazz trumpeter Jason Palmer is a forward-thinking musician with a bent toward adventurous and cerebral post-bop. A native of High Point, North Carolina, Palmer studied his craft at the New England Conservatory in Boston. While there, Palmer was also a regular at the highly regarded Boston club Wally’s Cafe, where he first sat in on jam sessions and later joined the house band. Since graduating from college, Palmer has performed with a variety of name musicians including drummer Roy Haynes; saxophonists Benny Golson, Greg Osby, and Ravi Coltrane; guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel; and many others. In 2007 Down Beat magazine named him one of the Top 25 Trumpeters of the Future. A year later, Palmer released his debut solo album, Songbook, on Ayva Music. In 2009 Palmer won first prize in the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition. That same year, he starred in the independent musical film Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, in which he played a jazz trumpeter. In 2010 he released his sophomore effort, Nothing to Hide, on SteepleChase Records. A year later, he returned with the album Here Today, featuring saxophonist Mark Turner. In 2012 Palmer delivered his fourth studio album, Take a Little Trip, featuring reworkings of songs by legendary soul singer Minnie Riperton.
Matt Collar
Track Listing:
1. Take A Litle Trip 9:16
2. Lovin’ You 9:21
3. I’m In Love Again 6:33
4. Adventures In Paradise 10:07
5. Inside My Love 12:52
6. Memory Lane 12:27
7. I’m Woman 11:58
Personnel:
Jason Palmer: trumpet
Greg Duncan: guitar
Jake Sherman: piano, rhodes
Edward Perez: bass
Lee Fish: drums
Recorded October 2011
Review:
Trumpeter Jason Palmer pays homage to legendary soul singer Minnie Riperton on 2012’s Take a Little Trip. Riperton, who died from breast cancer in 1979, was a highly gifted vocalist and cancer awareness spokesperson whose 1974 album Perfect Angel, produced by Stevie Wonder, is a classic of the decade. Riperton’s music often incorporated jazz sounds and even featured such crossover jazz artists as flutist Hubert Laws, keyboardist Joe Sample, and pianist Ramsey Lewis. Consequently, her music is deep with harmonic and melodic material for an artist like Palmer to explore. Here, he reworks a handful of Riperton’s songs, including such classics as “Lovin’ You” and “I’m a Woman,” into expansive yet intimate jazz numbers that both celebrate the source material and deconstruct it. Joining Palmer are guitarist Greg Duncan, pianist/Rhodes keyboardist Jake Sherman, bassist Edward Perez, and drummer Lee Fish. While the songs here are not “cover versions” by any means, Palmer does take care to evince how Riperton, with her unique five-octave range, sang them. For example, Palmer even plays Riperton’s trademark falsetto fall at the end of the melody line of “Lovin’ You.” Of course, he does so in his own way, bringing out his burnished, gentle tone and measured phrasing. Furthermore, while Palmer clearly respects Riperton’s music, he is not afraid to reconfigure these songs, most often rethinking the rhythm and tempo in inventive ways. Listen to how the bass, and not the drums as in the original, sets up the funky tempo to 1975’s “Adventures in Paradise,” allowing Palmer to take an extended exploratory improvisation before the full rhythm section comes in. The result is an album that, while showcasing a respect and deep of knowledge of Riperton’s music, is first and foremost a forward-thinking jazz album. This won’t be surprising to anyone familiar with Palmer’s work either as a solo artist or a supporting player, as he’s been to such artists as saxophonists Grace Kelly and Greg Osby. An intelligent, highly adept improviser, Palmer represents a new breed of 21st century jazz musicians including such contemporaries as Ravi Coltrane, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Mark Turner, and others, who set their egos aside and take a thoughtful, intellectual, and technically adept approach to the music. Which isn’t to say this album comes off as a cold, academic exercise. On the contrary, what’s so great here is how well Palmer walks the line between romantic slow-jam R&B and harmonically challenging modal jazz improvisation. In that sense, the album brings to mind the ’70s/’80s work of Herbie Hancock sideman trumpeter Eddie Henderson. A few songs, such as the ballad “I’m in Love Again,” originally a duet with Michael Jackson from Riperton’s posthumous 1980 album, as well as “Inside My Love,” with its sense of ruminative, sensual isolation, even recall the introspective ’70s avant-garde jazz sound of Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava. From the album’s cover shot (a cheeky re-creation of Riperton’s 1974 album Perfect Angel featuring Palmer in overalls) to the creative and unexpected ways in which he has reconfigured the material, Palmer’s Take a Little Trip is a joyful ride.
Matt Collar (AllMusic)
