On Craig
Handy's OKeh Records debut, Craig Handy & 2nd Line Smith, funk and groove
supply the motive and the motivation. The album, available January 21, 2014, is
the saxophonist's first recording as a leader in more than a decade. The
repertoire consists of 10 numbers from the songbook of Jimmy Smith - the
founder of modern jazz organ expression, a creative inspiration that evolved
from Handy's realization several years ago that his distinguished resume
included no opportunities "to cut my teeth with any of the great organ
players." As an added---and surprising---turn, Handy's reinterpretation of
Smith's work includes rhythm and grooves derived from the tight second-line
funk of New Orleans.
For his
band Handy recruited soul jazz specialists Kyle Koehler on Hammond B-3 and Matt
Chertkoff on guitar (both New Jersey neighbors and members of his working
band), sousaphone virtuoso Clark Gayton, and well known New Orleans drummers
Jason Marsalis, Herlin Riley and Ali Jackson. Trumpet virtuoso Wynton Marsalis,
singer Dee Dee Bridgewater and blues singer-guitarist Clarence Spady make their
trademark appearances on the record as well.
In
approaching the session, Handy recalls, "I realized that two of Jimmy's
hits-'The Cat' and 'High Heel Sneakers'-used modified second-line rhythms. A
light bulb went off in my head. I said, 'That's it-we'll do a Jimmy Smith
record in the second-line vein.' New Orleans is one of the furnaces that jazz
comes from, and I saw no need to change my stripes to suit the style."
Nor do
Handy's colleagues. Koehler, a Philadelphian, is intimate not only with Smith's
entire corpus, but also with the vocabularies of Philly contemporaries Don
Patterson, Shirley Scott, and Charles Earland. Handy observes that Chertkoff,
who is equally in demand, effectively channels "the mood and vibe of Wes
Montgomery, Grant Green, Kenny Burrell, and Quentin Warren," who are among
the most eminent of the guitarists who served as Smith's foils during his years
with Blue Note and Verve. There is no busier low-end brass player in New York
than Gayton, Handy's band mate in the Mingus Big Band since the mid '90s.
"Matt
and Kyle serve as the jazz element, keeping us honest as a modern jazz
quintet," Handy says. "Clark and the drummers add the second line
element, and I straddle both." That's a perfect description of Handy's
treatment of the Muddy Waters blues "Got My Mojo Working." Playing
drums and washboard, Riley unleashes a relentless quasi-zydeco shuffle as Spady
delivers a gritty vocal. Wynton Marsalis counterstates with fierce growls and
hollers that coalesce into an inflamed, cogent solo, from which the leader
piggybacks into his own soul-drenched declamation.
Riley's
Zigaboo Modaliste-meets-Clyde Stubblefield funk beats propel Handy's intense
soprano solo on "Mellow Mood" and his tenor statement on "Ready
'N Able," and "I Got Rhythm" line that Smith presented on his
1956 Blue Note debut, A New Sound, A New Star.
Old-school
New Orleans comes forth in the tasty press rolls that Jason Marsalis executes
with control and taste to animate the classic Ivory Joe Hunter ballad "I
Almost Lost My Mind." He also incorporates tambourine into the groove of
"Road Song," a Smith-Montgomery classic; enlivens Handy's soulful
alto solo on "Organ Grinder's Swing" with inexorable march cadences;
and synchronizes the ride cymbal and bass drum swingingly on Stanley
Turrentine's "Minor Chant."
"Minor
Chant" is one of several homages to Turrentine that Handy offers on Craig
Handy & 2nd Line Smith. "The older I get, the more I relate to
Stanley," Handy says. "Everything he does appeals to me, like I've
been walking for 10 miles and there's a water fountain. I have to drink. I
liked him from the very beginning, though as a kid I was drawn to Dexter Gordon
and John Coltrane, who were playing more straight-ahead bop, although Stanley
was no slouch in that department. Things were wide-open in the Bay Area, and
the level of musicianship was high. Nobody was saying, 'Here's what you have to
do and this is the way you have to do it.' I'm also a product of the funk
movement. The Pointer Sisters lived around the corner from my house, and I
listened to Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind and Fire, and
Parliament-Funkadelic as much as jazz."
In a
sense, Craig Handy & 2nd Line Smith marks the first time that Handy has
coalesced all of these influences into a unified statement. In part, he credits
Bridgewater, a frequent employer since 2010, who sings "On The Sunny Side
Of The Street" in her inimitably saucy manner: "Playing with Dee Dee,
watching her assume a different role for every song, has rubbed off on
me," Handy says. "A singer has to sell the song, and Dee Dee becomes
that song every time. Ten years ago, I wouldn't have had the chutzpah to pull
off this project. I would have been too self-conscious, concerned about how
people perceive me. I wasn't musically ready to handle this kind of project,
though I've been heading here for 25 years. Now this seems like the hippest
thing I've ever done. As long as I stay in the groove of the beat, I can play
anything I hear, be it angular or abstract, and it will sound cool over the
bands foundation. Just talking about it is making me excited-I can't wait to
get to the next gig-we have so much fun on the bandstand!"
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