The
Motor City's own bass-loving son Rodney Whitaker eloquently and exuberantly
evinces the dynamic spirit that has driven him across eight records for the
Detroit-based jazz label, a lengthy tenure with the Lincoln Center Jazz
Orchestra and a career that knows no bound. When We Find Ourselves Alone is the
signpost of an artist still traveling the highway of discovery.
With
When We Find Ourselves Alone, he gathered generational contemporaries and
modern masters including saxophonist Antonio Hart, pianist Bruce Barth and
drummer Gregory Hutchinson, each a friend and musical partner for close to a
quarter century. Reinforcing the family feel of the proceedings, Whitaker's
daughter, Rockelle Fortin, brings her expansive voice and keen interpretative
skills to five selections. "Quartet with saxophone is really my
voice," says Whitaker. "I grew up playing in that context and with
vocalists. When you're from Detroit, you don't compartmentalize or segregate
music. You play funk, you play bebop, and you play gospel."
The
ambiance on When We Find Ourselves Alone is similar to what Whitaker generated
on such turn-of-the-century gems as Winter Moon, Ballads and Blues: The
Brooklyn Session and Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, all recorded for small
independent labels, on which the leader drew repertoire from several stylistic
tributaries. Now, as then, Whitaker and company address the leader's five
originals and six arrangements with an old-school feel and a 21st century
attitude. They follow the time-tested jazz aesthetic, embracing the tradition
of navigating the long-standing forms with individualistic tonal personalities,
ebullient soulfulness and an unending will to swing.
"I
think of what Carl [Allen] and I did on our records as 21st century soul
jazz," Whitaker says. "This record is closer to modern hard bop. It's
about swinging and having a good time. Even though I hadn't gigged with any of
them for years, there's a certain freedom to playing with people you trust that
you can't get otherwise. I worked with Bruce from 1989 to 1991 with Terence
Blanchard, and he's like a big brother to me. I was on the road for four years
with Greg and three with Antonio in Roy Hargrove's group. They're like my
little brothers, and we're all grown men now. All these guys knew my daughter
as a child, and they hadn't seen her since she was probably ten years
old."
Whitaker
relates the back story of the jaunty opener, "The World Falls Away,"
a medium swinger propelled by Hutchinson's crisp beats and highlighted by
Hart's impassioned, melodic declamation. "It was Valentine's Day, and I'd
had a bad day," he says. "My wife gave me a card that talked about
the rigors and challenges of life, and at the end said, 'But at night, when
we're together and lying in each other's arms, the world falls away."
A thread
of joyous nostalgia infuses "When You Played With Roy," an AABA theme
with a bossa feel that contains a catchy 10-bar bridge. Whitaker's brief
opening solo displays his abundant technique and creativity, qualities that
also animate Hutchinson's exchanges with the soloists. "Everywhere I play, people approach me
and say, 'I loved it when you played with Roy Hargrove,'" Whitaker says.
"I started thinking about turning that title into a theme that would
capture the joy of performing with Roy and the joy people got from hearing the
group live."
Whitaker
bows a plush introduction to "Autumn Leaves," then switches to
pizzicato for a dramatic rubato duo with his daughter, whose stately rendering
of the lyric foreshadows a cogent scat solo once the tempo morphs to swing.
Hart's
pure soprano saxophone tone illuminates the poignant long notes that open
"Jamerson's Lullaby," which references not only the immortal Motown
session bassist, but also the sadness that Whitaker's youngest son, Jamerson,
age five, experiences when it is time to go to bed. Whitaker adds, "He
looks at you and smiles, and it's so infectious it makes you happy," - in
this case, a mood-switch denoted with a change to major key in the B-section.
Fortin
channels her inner Carmen McRae on "You Go To My Head," enlivened by
Hutchinson's neo-hip-hop pocket and ascendant solos by Hart, Barth and
Whitaker. Then Whitaker creates a polyrhythmic bass line to maneuver
"Invitation"-one of several homages to tenor saxophone immortal Joe
Henderson that he has recorded-away from well-traveled routes.
There
follows "Freedom Day," an Oscar Brown song depicting the end of
slavery at the end of the Civil War that Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln memorably
recorded in 1960 on We Insist! After Fortin's intense delivery of the lyric,
and fierce statements by Hart and Barth, Hutchinson displays his rarefied
position on the drum tree with a solo that dialogues with Roach's drum oratory
from half-a-century ago.
"I
follow W.E.B. DuBois in thinking about music as a way to talk about
politics," says Whitaker. "We live in a time where we have an
African-American President, yet people are angry at him solely because he's
African-American. We're not free yet, though we think we are. But slavery
didn't just change the black man. It changed us all. We're not ready to let go
of oppression or the anger in our hearts." Whitaker's social activist
concerns underpin "A Mother's Cry," a memorable refrain that he
composed a few years ago for the documentary film Malaria & Malawi:
Fighting to Save the Children, earning a Michigan Emmy nomination for the
theme. Propelled by Whitaker's ferocious 12/8 vamp and Hutchinson's
Afrodiasporic beats, Hart uncorks a magnificent soprano solo that evokes both
the pain of malaria's impoverished victims and possibility of a remedy.
In
arranging "Mr. Magic," Whitaker hewed to Roberta Flack's early '70s
hit that Grover Washington immortally interpreted as a soprano saxophone
instrumental in 1975. Fortin elicits oceanic emotions from the lyric; Hart's
ecstatic solo signifies on his very first jazz saxophone hero. "It's a
song about joy, someone who found someone, treated them with love and took care
of them physically," Whitaker says.
Whitaker
composed the title track two years ago for a commissioned work titled Jazz Up
South on the topic of migration stories. "It's about forbidden love
between two people who are in love when people do not want them to be
together," Whitaker says. Turbulent solos by Barth and Hart evoke the
inflamed emotions of love denied. "For me, the story is a metaphor for
life, when people don't pursue their dreams. My compass has always been to do
first what brings joy to my life."
Along
those lines, Whitaker concludes this well-wrought portrait of the artist in
mid-career with "Lost In You Again," a modern gospel classic by Fred
Hammond, illuminated by Barth's and Hart's jubilant solos. "The spiritual
realm is part of my upbringing, and if I'm telling a story or putting together
a set, I want to attend to the whole person," Whitaker says. "I want
to talk about every aspect of life and love and tragedy. Sometimes you've got
to talk about the unpleasant to get to joy, but ultimately it should all end with
joy."
Whitaker,
a father of seven children, has devoted much attention to building a
world-class Jazz Studies Department at Michigan State University (which in 2013
conferred on him the honor of Distinguished Professor of Jazz Bass). In
addition to a first-class faculty ensemble, the MSU Professors of Jazz,
Whitaker formed a co-led project with drummer Carl Allen that generated the
critically acclaimed, pocket-heavy Mack Avenue recordings Get Ready (2007) and
Work To Do (2011). More recently, Whitaker has also served as bassist and music
director for the Mack Avenue SuperBand, a group of label all-stars convened for
the 2012 and 2013 editions of the Detroit Jazz Festival, and documented on
Live! From The 33rd Annual Detroit Jazz Festival.
Initially
a dedicated violinist, Whitaker switched to bass in junior high school. His
band director taught him harmony, and he evolved conceptually in a teenage
group called Bird/Trane/Sco/Now!, led by Donald Washington, Whitaker's string
instructor in sixth and seventh grade. During these years, Whitaker also
participated in trumpeter Marcus Belgrave's jazz group, performed European
classical music with the Detroit Civic Orchestra, studied privately with
members of the Detroit Symphony, and worked with such Motor City luminaries as
pianist Kenn Cox and drummers Leonard King and Francesco Mora Catlett. A
devotee of Paul Chambers and Ron Carter from the jump, Whitaker also considers
Ray Brown, Oscar Pettiford, James Jamerson and Dave Holland to be crucial
influences on his style.
After
leaving Detroit in 1988 with the Donald Harrison-Terence Blanchard Quintet,
Whitaker joined Hargrove in 1991 for a four-year run. During 1995 and 1996,
when he freelanced with Elvin Jones, Kenny Garrett and Diana Krall, Whitaker
recorded his first two CDs, Children Of the Light and Hidden Kingdom, both
comprised primarily of original music. In 1996, Wynton Marsalis hired him to
play with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. "Working with Wynton was
probably the closest I ever got to going to graduate school," Whitaker
says. "I got to play so many different styles, and was inspired to learn
the history of the music in depth. It made me realize that music is not just
about notes. It's about a story and it's about lives."
Upcoming
Rodney Whitaker Performances:
August
30 / Detroit Jazz Festival (w/ Mack Avenue SuperBand) / Detroit, MI
August
31 / Detroit Jazz Festival / Detroit, MI
September
11 - 14 / Bar on Fifth / New York, NY
October
3 - 4 / Libby's / Jackson, MI
November
24 / Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola / New York, NY
Rodney
Whitaker · When We Find Ourselves Alone / Mack
Avenue Records · Release Date: August 19, 2014 / www.RodneyWhitaker.com
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