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Sunday, 19 May 2013

Eric Alexander & Harold Mabern Celebrate Coltrane With Louis Hayes, George Coleman & More at Smoke

Written by Ronaldo Oregano

Sunday, 18 December 2011

Eric Alexander © Andrea Canter

Tenor Titan Eric Alexander and hard-bop legend Harold Mabern host the "Countdown 2012" John Coltrane music festival for ten nights at Smoke featuring several special guests over the course of the event culinating in a New Year Day show. Special guests include drum legend Louis Hayes on December 23rd, 24th and 25th, tenor great George Coleman on December 26th, trumpeter Jeremy Pelt on December 27th, saxophonist Vincent Herring on December 28th and 29th, and vocalist Gregory Porter on December 30th, 31st, and January 1st. The solid rhythm section features bassist John Webber and Joe Farnsworth on drums.

Eric Alexander © Andrea Canter

With over two dozen CDs out under his own name and appearing as sideman on countless others, Eric Alexander has made his mark on the jazz world and documented his progress as a tenor master. He has a rich tone and an aggressive, driving style that grabs the listener's attention and doesn't let go. At William Paterson College in New Jersey Eric advanced his studies under the tutelage of Mabern, Joe Lovano, Rufus Reid, and others. "The people I listened to in college are still the cats that are influencing me today," says Alexander. "Monk, Dizzy, Sonny Stitt, Clifford Brown, Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, Joe Henderson--the legacy left by Bird and all the bebop pioneers, that language and that feel, that's the bread and butter of everything I do. George Coleman remains a big influence because of his very hip harmonic approach, and I'm still listening all the time to Coltrane because I feel that even in the wildest moments of his mid- to late-Sixties solos I can find these little kernels of melodic information and find ways to employ them in my own playing."

During the 1990s, after placing second behind Joshua Redman in the 1991 Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition, Alexander threw himself into the whirlwind life of a professional jazz musician. He played with organ trios on the South Side of Chicago, made his recording debut in 1991 with Charles Earland on Muse Records, and cut his first album as leader in 1992 (Straight Up for Delmark). More recordings followed for numerous labels, including Milestone and others, leading to 1997's Man with a Horn; the 1998 collaborative quartet session with George Mraz, John Hicks, and Idris Muhammad, Solid!; and, that same year, the first recording by One For All, Alexander's ongoing band with Jim Rotondi, Steve Davis, Joe Farnsworth, Peter Washington, and Dave Hazeltine.

Eric has appeared in many capacities on record, including leader, sideman, producer as well as composing a number of the tunes he records. By now, Alexander has lost count of how many albums feature his playing; he guesses 60 or 70. While he has garnered critical acclaim from every corner, what has mattered most has been to establish his own voice within the illustrious bop-based jazz tradition.

In 2004, Eric signed an exclusive contract with the New York-based independent jazz label, HighNote Records where he has amassed a considerable discography of critically-acclaimed recordings. Most recent among them is “Temple of Olympic Zeus” (HCD 7172), “The Battle” with Vincent Herring and Mike LeDonne (HCD 7137) and “It’s all in the Game”

Harold Mabern

Hard Bop piano legend Harold Mabern was born 75 years ago in Memphis, Tennessee. Well-known for his work with tenor saxophonists George Coleman and Eric Alexander, Harold plays with a powerful technique and a deep insight into a wide range of repertoire. Here, he is joined by John Webber on bass and Joe Farnsworth on drums, but there are sure to be many others who will want to stop in and join the party. Mabern played in Chicago with MJT + 3 in the late 1950s and then moved to New York in 1959. In the years following he worked with jazz greats Jimmy Forrest, Lionel Hampton, the Jazztet, Donald Byrd, Miles Davis, J. J. Johnson, Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley, Sonny Rollins, Freddie Hubbard, Wes Montgomery, Joe Williams, Sarah Vaughan and more.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Mabern led four albums for Prestige Records, performed with Lee Morgan, and recorded with Stanley Cowell's Piano Choir. Harold Mabern has more recently recorded as a leader for DIW/Columbia and Sackville and toured with the Contemporary Piano Ensemble. Mabern has developed a strong following in Japan, resulting in regular opportunities to record for the Japanese Venus label. While you can enjoy some of his earlier Pretsige albums that have re-issued for a reasonable price - many of his more recent recordings will cost near $30 a pop for the Japanese import.

Born in Memohis, George Coleman moved to Chicago, along with Booker Little in 1956. The bustling jazz scene brought him together with local heavyweights like Gene Ammons, Johnny Griffin, John Gilmore and Ira Sullivan, and he joined Walter Perkins’ group, The MJT + 3. When Max Roach heard George with this unit in 1958, he invited him to join his own quartet featuring Kenny Dorham on trumpet. Booker soon replaced Dorham in the group and George remained with Max for two years. When eminent trombonist Slide Hampton formed his octet in 1959, George and his Max Roach bandmates Little and Julian Priester formed the brass-heavy front line with Slide and Freddie Hubbard. He remained with Hampton until 1962, then join Miles Davis in 1963. For two years George was a member of that groundbreaking quintet with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams, recording four classic albums – Seven Steps to Heaven, My Funny Valentine, Four and Miles Davis in Europe – before leaving that highly visible position to Wayne Shorter. The following year George and Hubbard joined with Miles’ rhythm team for Herbie Hancock’s landmark Maiden Voyage, one of the most popular albums in the history of jazz.

Jeremy Pelt © Andrea Canter

Jeremy Pelt arrived in New York in 1998 after graduating from Berklee College of Music, and it wasn't long before he started being noticed by a lot of top musicians in the city. His first professional gig was playing with the Mingus Big Band, which led to many long lasting associations with many of the top players in the band. Pelt has been fortunate enough to play with many of jazz’s luminaries including Jimmy Heath, Frank Wess, Charlie Persip, Keter Betts, Frank Foster, Ravi Coltrane, Winard Harper, Vincent Herring, Ralph Peterson, Lonnie Plaxico, Cliff Barbaro, Nancy Wilson, Bobby Short, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Cedar Walton, and many others. Pelt has also been featured in a variety of different bands, including the Roy Hargrove Big Band, The Village Vanguard Orchestra, and the Duke Ellington Big Band. Currently, he is member of the Lewis Nash Septet, Mingus Big Band, and The Cannonball Adderley Legacy Band featuring Louis Hayes. In addition to his busy schedule as a sideman, Pelt leads his own ensembles and has released five highly praised recordings under his own name.

Vincent Herring played sax at West Point in the U.S. Military Band. Dubbed a “Young Lion” in the early 80s, he toured with the Lionel Hampton Band before his big break with Nat Adderley's band, displaying a style in the vein of Nat’s brother, Cannonball. Notes International Jazz Productions, “Vincent has developed into a virtuoso with a voice that is uniquely intense and vigorous with the energy and direction.” Regarding his place in the Cannonball chair with the Legacy Band, Jazz Times (November 2002) noted that he has “formidable technique and the appropriately aggressive attitude to put it over. Like Adderley, Herring tells a story when he plays, quotes other songs in his solos…and always plays hip turnarounds at the ends of his phrases.” (For more information on Vincent Herring, see www.vincentherring.com)

Gregory Porter

With a voice that can caress or confront, embrace or exhort, Grammy nominee, Gregory Porter exhibits such an incredible degree of vocal mastery, that no less a jazz luminary than Wynton Marsalis has gone on record to call him "a fantastic young singer." Born in Los Angeles, raised in Bakersfield, and now residing in Bedstuy, Brooklyn, Gregory Porter has made the world his musical home. A frequent guest performer with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Porter also maintains a long-standing residency at Spanish Harlem's venerable Smoke Jazz Club and performs internationally. He recently was a guest on the Jools Holland BBC 2 TV show in the UK and this year will be appearing at the London Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival and the Atlanta National Black Arts Festival among others.

Drummer Joe Farnsworth has been living in the New York area since 1990. He studied with the great drummer Art Taylor while attending William Paterson College. While still living at home in Massachusetts, Joe studied with Alan Dawson who was also Tony Williams' teacher. Joe has been playing with tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander since the two met while they were students at William Paterson. It has been a very fruitful musical association. Farnsworth and Alexander have been together on too many sessions to list, with Eric as leader or a fellow sideman.

Smoke is located at 2751 Broadway, Manhattan, www.smokejazz.com, (212) 864-6662.

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