Embrace (RareNoise)
Rudd / Victor / Harris / Filiano
Released November 17, 2017
DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/6ZLusHJMHJOP1bbXbxmQ1l?si=0Gj5UwJdRt6o3RYJR5viMA
About:
For his follow-up to 2016’s purely improvised studio recording Strength & Power (a cooperative quartet album featuring pianist Jamie Saft, bassist Trevor Dunn and drummer Balazs Pandi), the ever-adventurous trombonist-composer Roswell Rudd made a decided shift in direction on his first RareNoise release as a leader by embracing jazz standards he has loved and played throughout his long and illustrious career.
Accompanied by the brilliant pianist Lafayette Harris, upright bass virtuoso Ken Filiano and soulful vocal sensation Fay Victor, the 81-year-old jazz master delivers with rare potency and poignancy on the aptly-titled Embrace.
This intimate, drum-less quartet session is brimming with conversational playing between all the participants, with Rudd and Victor partaking in some particularly interactive exchanges on jazz classics like Billy Strayhorn’s Something to Live For, Charles Mingus’ Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, Thelonious Monk’s beautiful ballad Pannonica,” the standard Can’t We Be Friends and the traditional House of the Rising Sun.
Track Listing:
1. Something to Live For (Duke Ellington / Billy Strayhorn) 08:22
2. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (Rahsaan Roland Kirk / Charles Mingus) 06:39
3. Can’t We Be Friends (Paul James / Kay Swift) 07:46
4. I Hadn’t Anyone Till You (Ray Noble) 07:20
5. Too Late Now (Burton Lane) 11:34
6. House of the Rising Sun (Traditional) 08:17
7. I Look in the Mirror (Verna Gillis) 04:38
8. Pannonica (Jon Hendricks / Thelonious Monk) 10:32
Personnel:
Roswell Rudd, trombone
Fay Victor, vocals
Lafayette Harris, piano
Ken Filiano, bass
Recorded July 2014
Producer: Verna Gillis
Engineer: Jamie Saft
Mixing: Jamie Saft
Mastering: Vin Cin
Photography: Verna Gillis
Design: Graham Schreiner
Artwork: Graham Schreiner
Executive Producer: Giacomo Bruzzo
Review:
The idea of a bunch of standards and jazz oldies played by a crusty veteran trombonist with gal singer and drum-less rhythm section may not strike you right off as hot stuff, but let me pull your coat.
Trombonist Roswell Rudd inhabits his noblest of axes like none other. He reigns over dead-slow tempos and excels at medium trots, summoning more dry wit and expressive breadth with plunger mute on “Can’t We Be Friends” than Charlie Chaplin. Vocalist Fay Victor evinces pain, joy and lust with exceptional candor and warmth. Bassist Ken Filiano and pianist Lafayette Harris find amiable affinity as backroom buddies of easy accord, imperfect straight men for free-form front-line antics. The repertoire on Embrace was all written before 1958 (except a wry ditty by Rudd’s partner, Verna Gillis). At 82, Rudd has been playing these compositions for ages, and his accumulated affection is tangible as barnacles. They’re eclectic as Rudd, who embodies a rich confluence of jazz cultures. There are no polished charts, rather rough-cut barroom jams by solid pros exuding gritty experience and slow-smoked passion. Taking their sweet time, the band jostles inside the lyrics to nudge nuanced emotions. Thelonious Monk’s “Pannonica”–drawn from Carmen McRae’s version with Jon Hendricks’ lyrics–is a far cry from the snappy two-step he and Steve Lacy laid down on School Days (1961). Roswell here reminisces on his savory, crunchy career, showing us, with a bearhug, that it’s been one swell ride.
Fred Bouchard (DownBeat)
