Patitucci's
14th album as a leader and first in six years, Brooklyn boasts a guitar-centric
electric sound featuring six-string wizards Adam Rogers and Steve Cardenas.
Patitucci joins the fray with a new semi-hollow electric bass designed
specifically for him by Yamaha, which allows him the fluidity of an electric
guitar with the deep, rotund bottom end of an acoustic bass. The quartet is
anchored by virtuoso drummer Brian Blade, Patitucci's longtime friend and
bandmate in the revered Wayne Shorter Quartet and in the new trio Children of
the Light (with pianist Danilo Pérez, other Shorter Quartet bandmate).
"I
have a great love for the guitar and I've played with some great guitar players
in various genres," Patitucci says, listing a fretboard who's-who
including John Scofield, Pat Metheny, Pat Martino, George Benson, and B.B.
King. "I wanted to have a different instrumentation because I've played with
so many high-powered piano players in my life, so I wanted to change the
orchestration up a little bit on my own record."
Brooklyn,
which marks the first time Patitucci has released an album on his own label, is
the long-awaited follow-up to the critically acclaimed Remembrance, which
garnered a 2010 GRAMMY® Award nomination for "Best Jazz Instrumental
Album." The recording, which took place at Brooklyn studio The Bunker, was
filmed for an upcoming documentary on Patitucci's life and career to be titled
Back in Brooklyn (due out in late 2015).
Patitucci
has always been proud of his roots, even during his two-decade stint in L.A.
beginning in the 1970s when he made his name as a studio musician and an
in-demand bassist for jazz greats including Shorter, Chick Corea, and Herbie
Hancock. "People would say I was from California and I'd say, 'No - I'm
from Brooklyn,'" Patitucci insists. "And I was, in my heart and in my
soul. It wasn't just a place to me."
As
Patitucci discusses his boyhood in the borough, one can picture 1960s Brooklyn
as something out of a Martin Scorsese film (minus the gunplay). "I come
from a very strong Italian-American family, and growing up in Brooklyn in that
kind of situation was a very rich heritage," he says. "We played
sports in the street- stickball, stoop ball, slap ball, roller hockey,
football. I have a lot of great memories of being part of a neighborhood and a
community where everybody knew each other and where a huge chunk of our family
lived within walking distance."
Patitucci's
family shared a house in East Flatbush with his uncle's family, while both sets
of grandparents lived on nearby blocks. It was his maternal grandfather, a
colorful character who was John's namesake but always went by the nickname
Sonny, who introduced the future bassist to jazz. "His father had a
speakeasy during prohibition where he became familiar with the stride piano
style - also through albums by players like Eubie Blake and Earl 'Fatha'
Hines," Patitucci says. "He played a little piano by ear and was a
renaissance man - he was the best chef in the family, made dresses for my
mother, and fought in World War II with Patton. He was an amazing guy."
One day,
Patitucci's grandfather, who was working manual labor on the city streets, came
home with a treasure trove of jazz records that some unfortunate resident had
left in the trash. (A later bandmate suggested to Patitucci the most likely
explanation: a spurned spouse or lover must have dumped the collection on the
curb since, the musician asserted, "nobody would just give these records
away.") The record stash included Jimmy Smith's Hoochie Coochie Man, the
debut album by the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, Ray Charles' Genius + Soul =
Jazz, and Art Blakey's Mosaic - Patitucci's introduction to Wayne Shorter -
among countless other titles.
Perhaps
the most coveted titles in that batch were those by Wes Montgomery, which
Patitucci and his guitarist brother Tom found enthralling. "The Wes
Montgomery albums drew us in because they were bluesy and the tempos were a
little easier to deal with," Patitucci explains. "But the Art Blakey
record was intriguing, powerful and jarring. We didn't know what to make of it,
but we loved it."
Those
early influences are reflected on Brooklyn through the inclusion of two
compositions by Thelonious Monk - another name well-represented in his
grandfather's haul - and a duo rendition of Montgomery's "The Thumb"
by Patitucci and Blade. The piece originally appeared on Montgomery's 1966
album Tequila, which featured bassist Ron Carter, who remains one of
Patitucci's biggest influences.
Not
every track on Brooklyn is meant to look back; some, like opener "The
Search," document how far Patitucci has come from those early roots. The
piece, somehow simultaneously taut and airy, showcases Patitucci's contrapuntal
writing for the guitars with melodies that weave and coil around one another.
It also bears a trace of influence from the West African music that Patitucci
loves and studies, which comes to the fore on "Dugu Kamalemba," a
song originally recorded by Malian singer Oumou Sangaré.
"Band
of Brothers," a title which Patitucci says aptly captures the spirit of
the quartet, is a funky, laid-back blues/rock jam somewhere between Wilson
Pickett and the Allman Brothers. "JLR" shows off the guitarist's
blues chops, while the mysterious acronym may be explained by lyrics that
Patitucci is holding in reserve until the day he can give them to Buddy Guy to
sing. "Do You," based on the familiar "I've Got Rhythm" chord
changes, shows off the Yamaha's robust sound as a walking bass, while
"Bells of Coutance" is an impressionistic interlude that evokes the
sound of church bells in a small French town.
Patitucci
muses on his spiritual faith with his New Orleans-tinged take on the classic
spiritual "Go Down, Moses," while the album draws to the close with
the tender, heartfelt solo piece "Tesori," a love letter to his wife
and daughters that translates as "Treasures."
Brooklyn
is the latest landmark in a career that has seen Patitucci become one of the
most versatile and inventive bassists in jazz and beyond. He's played with
giants in nearly every conceivable genre, from Chick Corea and Wayne Shorter to
B.B. King and Natalie Cole, Sting and Bon Jovi, Astrud Gilberto and Ali Farka
Touré. At the same time he's been exceedingly active in music education,
serving as Professor of Music at the City College of New York for almost a
decade. In 2012, he joined bandmate and friend Danilo Pérez's Berklee Global
Jazz Institute at the Berklee College of Music in Boston as well as serving as
a full-time faculty member at the school. Additionally, he launched an
interactive online bass school through ArtistWorks.com and released a kindle
book, Melodic Arpeggios and Triad Combining for Bass.
Upcoming
JOHN PATITUCCI Performances:
All
dates to feature the John Patitucci Electric Guitar Quartet Featuring
Brian Blade, Adam Rogers & Steve Cardenas
May
13-16 / Iridium / New York, NY
May 18 /
Jazz Kitchen / Indianapolis, IN
May 19 /
SPACE / Evanston, IL
May
21-22 / Dazzle Jazz / Denver, CO
May
23-24 / Blue Whale / Los Angeles, CA
May
27-30 / Cotton Club / Tokyo, Japan
John
Patitucci · Brooklyn
Release
Dates: May 12, 2015 (Digital), May 19, 2015 (Physical)
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