Vibraphonist Tyler Blanton shows a lot of promise in his performing of jazz music. He brought a great quartet to Charlie O’s on February 23rd, 2011 that included Walter Smith III on tenor saxophone, Hamilton Price on bass and Steve Hass on drum set. They played several selections from Blanton’s new CD, Botanic (reviewed on Jazz Police).These guys play very well and cooked up some truly fine jazz.
Beginning with the beautiful “How Deep Is the Ocean,” I noticed the major advantage of Blanton’s two-handed playing with four mallets. He was able to bring musical chords out early on. Many other vibraphonists have done this same method over years. Blanton’s is direct and meaningful immediately and drove the quartet musically through all the numbers they performed. Smith took the second chorus. His tenor has a good, groovy identifiable sound. Hass played some unique rhythmic patterns on his drum set, especially some rim-shots on his drum sides that added very special spice and vibrant backing for this particular number as well as other tunes later on. I have heard Price’s bass playing several times with different artists and he continually renders himself to be one of the stronger bass players in the jazz world.
“Botanic,” the title tune from his new CD, was performed next. This number has many unusual changes. The quartet played it brilliantly. The great ballad “Polka Dots and Moonbeams” followed and was performed extremely well. Another Blanton original, “Marionette,” had lots of rhythmical passages and also doubled in time signature through several parts of this piece.
As a terrific closer to the first set, Blanton’s group gave us the lovely “Alone Together,” done in Latin shuffle mode in which everyone played fine solos, especially Price with a remarkable bass solo. Watch for more jazz music from Tyler Blanton. He has some phenomenal work coming ahead. See his website: www.tylerblanton.net. Also: www.charlieos.com.
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