Joe LaBarbera Quintet (James Frank Dean)

Superb drummer Joe La Barbera brought his amazing quintet to Blue Whale to celebrate their new Silver Streams CD release on Saturday, August 11th.  It was a packed house, setting the stage for a fantastic musical evening.  Silver Streams is the title of La Barbera’s new CD, paying tribute to the great Horace Silver in the title tune composed by Bill Cunliffe. The rest of this great CD—one of the best new releases in some time-- includes compositions by members of the quintet and other composers. In addition to La Barbera, the quintet included Bob Sheppard (saxes), John Daversa (trumpet and flugelhorn), Bill Cunliffe (piano) and Tom Warrington (bass).  

Everything played was from the new CD except the evening’s encore. The band began with “Afluencia,” a nifty, moving tune by Cunliffe.  Sheppard, DaVersa, and Cunliffe played impeccable solos within a firm structure, followed with just the trio, then back to the quintet to the song’s conclusion. The audience gave lots of applause for all fine solos for this number and throughout the evening as well. Dado Maroni’s “Bradley’s 2 A.M.?” is a very jazzy tune with a neat, groovy bass solo by Warrington. Daversa played some nice changes soloing on his flugelhorn, followed by Sheppard’s great tenor work; Cunliffe played constant melodic melodies in the changes.  “Monkey Tree,” a juicy gem composed by La Barbera, gave us a lot of rhythmic and, again, melodic changes, with splendid playing by the quintet and featuring a dynamic, cohesive drum solo by La Barbera.  Other tunes of the first set were “Bite Your Grandmother” (Steve Swallow) and “Jade Visions” (Scott La Faro). 

The second set was very moving, starting with “E.J’s Blues,” written by famed drummer, Elvin Jones, a tremendous beginning for any set.  Everyone provided fine solos, while La Barbera and Warrington traded 8-bar breaks and more. A quiet and peaceful ballad, “Grace” (composed by Alan Pasqua), featured Cunliffe along with tenor sax and trumpet.  It was sweet and quite beautiful.  Cunliffe wrote a suite to honor the grandpop of be-bop, Horace Silver, the title track “Silver Streams.”  This tune contained some superb runs and passages with tight interplay among Cunliffe and Warrington, as well as some glorious trumpet (Deversa) and tenor sax (Sheppard).  In the latter part of the suite, La Barbera gave a long zesty solo on his full drum set, bring a standing ovation from the audience to finish the evening.  For a requested encore they played “Message From Art” (For Art Blakey), composed by La Barbera, an impressive moving and minor bluesy tune with rocking solos from Sheppard and Daversa.

This was an exceptional concert and CD release party for some of the brightest jazz musicians anywhere.  The Blue Whale Jazz Club has been going for over three years and staying pretty busy.  Their acoustics are pretty good.  Visit Joe La Barbera’s website at www.jazzcompass.com and Blue Whale Jazz Club site at www.bluewhalemusic.com.

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