This sextet is an ideal setting for younger musicians like Ray and Vagenas. They get to play intelligently conceived, original music, and they are supported by a knowledgeable, swinging rhythm section. Their solos are not especially evolved, but they make sense. I haven't heard Manning for a while, but either he’s stepped up his playing or I'm listening better--probably both. His sound is deeper and more authoritative. Also he seems comfortable with Saunders’ band and music. Saunders is the best soloist, but the band has a democratic feel with all the players having their say.

Benny Maupin Trio
February 9, 2002 World Stage, Los Angeles
Benny Maupin ­ tenor, soprano, bass clarinet; Bob Hurst ­ bass; Michael Stephans ­ percussion.

Benny Maupin is best known for his playing with Miles Davis (Bitches Brew, Columbia) and with Herbie Hancock’s early-70’s band (Mwandishi, Warner Brothers). Since then he has often played with drummer Harvey Mason as well as recording and touring with Freddie Hubbard, Eddie Henderson, and others internationally. He is usually thought of as a tenor player, but unlike reed players who consider bass clarinet a double Maupin gives it a distinct personality—he is fluid, and it sounds like his primary instrument. There is some Eric Dolphy anguish in his upper register. This trio with its continual interaction presents him in possibly his most favorable circumstances. He played inventively throughout the evening both as soloist and ensemble player.

The first half combined abstract sketches and compositions with spontaneously created pieces. Most evolved into directions very different from their beginnings. Joe Zawinul's “In a Silent Way” began as a three-way percussion dialogue with Hurst knocking on the body of his bass and Maupin audibly running his fingers over his bass clarinet keys without blowing. Meanwhile Stephans stroked, pecked, or hammered on whatever surface seemed right. At one point he reached into the piano and began tapping on the strings to create a melodic/rhythmic pattern. At the other end Hurst manipulated the sustain pedal and held some keys down to color what Stephans was doing. (Ferrante and Teicher take note.) Stephans throws away the book on drumming--he plays completely by gut feeling. The second half featured some loosely referenced standards including Monk’s “I Mean You” and “In Walked Bud.”

Sitting ten feet from the bandstand allowed me hear the soulful, penetrating sound of Bob Hurst. He was equally brilliant accompanying, soloing, and in his dialogues with the other players. His playing had such a pull (He was not showing off or playing unnecessary notes.) I sometimes found myself focusing on his lines during ensemble playing and even when someone else was soloing.

Benny Maupin discography: http://home.t-online.de/home/stamil/bmatog.htm

Chris Potter Quartet
Chris Potter ­ tenor; Kevin Hays ­ piano; Darek Oles ­ bass; Bill Stewart ­ drums.
February 12, 2002

Chris Potter has been around for about ten years now. He quickly grew from omnipresent session soloist to featured player in a leading band (Dave Holland quintet) to bandleader with an audience large enough to sustain a tour. This concert focused on Potter, spontaneous composer—doing what he does best.

The music was mostly odd meter Potter compositions, and there was sometimes a sameness from one tune to the next. Some pieces began with pre-recorded electronics to help set a mood. Tempos were mostly in the medium range (They would vary during performance.), and several pieces shared a gray feeling. Hays took short solos on most tunes, but they were often right hand single-note lines and operated more as change of pace than as statements to be heard on an equal level with Potter's. Stewart played with his usual energy and inventiveness, but even he sounded homogenous. His extremes of whispering and thundering were missing. He took his most explosive solo on 7.5, his own blues.

Still, Potter’s playing was so creative and fulfilling that everything else became secondary. He was in a Sonny Rollins-like zone with one idea after another excitingly explored. There was never a hint of predictability or cliché. I would love to hear him play an unaccompanied saxophone concert.

Andy Milne’s Cosmic Dapp Theory
February 14, 2000 Rocco’s Hollywood
Andy Milne ­ piano, synthesizers, vocal; Gregoire Maret ­ harmonica; Rich Brown - electric bass; Sean Rickman ­ drums; Kokayi ­ vocals.

Andy Milne is not the new Sun Ra from another solar system. He is a solid musician with an advanced rhythmic sensibility intent on bringing hip-hop into the jazz tradition. Actually that’s done. What he’s working on now is enhancement.

Most pieces were instrumentals with Milne establishing an African-sounding odd meter groove. Bass and drums would come in with a complimentary groove often at a different tempo or in another key. The pieces flowed unpredictably into other grooves from there. Milne set his keyboards up at right angles--he often played bass lines or accompaniment with his left hand on acoustic piano while he played the lead with his right hand on synth. His solos were rhythmically oriented, but he maintained a sense of melodic interest.

"Tifa" featured Rickman as a popping soloist. He has Milne’s music under his fingers not to mention an eccentric, musical approach to the drums. The best piece of the evening was a keyboards-bass-drums trio with Rickman and Milne alternating the lead and continually evolving one groove into another. I gather Rickman is versatile—he played guitar on Milne’s 1999 CD. (Milne mentioned he plans to record the band again this summer.)

I should say in front I’m not partial to the harmonica. Maret mainly relied on choppy rhythmic phrases for interest. He seemed strapped for ideas on the ballads.

Vocalist-rapper Kokayi sounds like he’s informed by Leon Thomas, Bobby McFerrin, and other happening post-bop singers and maybe by Lenny Bruce. He has the blues down. An impromptu “Thursday Night” was hilarious stream-of-consciousness rap with Kokayi referencing the club's Hollywood neighborhood, the characters in the audience and behind the bar, and his family in New York whom he hadn't seen in several weeks. He invoked Jelly Roll Morton’s “Buddy Bolden’s Blues” at one point. “Bermuda Triangle” included witty rap over a Caribbean motif and Jamaican scat with Horace Silver comping.

Andy Milne Website: http://www.ingress.com/~amilne

Dave Pell Octet
February 19, 2002
Dave Pell - tenor; Carl Saunders - trumpet; Bill Reichenbach - trombone, bass trumpet; Bob Efford - baritone; Jerome Levy - guitar; Ross Tompkins - piano; Jim Hughart - bass; Dave Tull - drums.

As a popular West Coast bandleader of the 1950's Dave Pell recorded a string of records with many of the best-known players of the time. With eight pieces he was able to simulate the sound of a big band while maintaining the elasticity of a jazz combo. Pell hired Shorty Rodgers, Marty Paich, and other leading writers of the genre for his arrangements. The charts have not been played for forty years (The musicians used the original manuscripts, now yellowed and dog-eared.), and some of them surprised even Pell with their freshness. The focus is on lightly swinging band sound with intricate variations and brief solos, usually eight bars, rarely more than a chorus. The arrangements were originally conceived to feature the Chet Baker-influenced trumpet of Don Fagerquist or Jack Sheldon as the lead instrument and most prominent soloist. Carl Saunders brings evolved swing and ideas to his playing, but he sounded ideal in context. Pell also soloed often during the first set although later on reed trouble seemed to limit him mainly to ensemble playing.

This is not difficult music. It can be sight-read and rendered close to the spirit of the original band. "Tishomingo Blues" was a John Williams takeoff on the New Orleans sound. Shorty Rogers’ “It Never Entered My Mind” featured Pell’s ballad playing and a half chorus with guitar and piano simulating a Shearing sound. The Marty Paich arrangement of "Love Me Or Leave Me" recalled Lester Young's swing version. Musically speaking the most satisfying piece was the Saunders composition “Not Quite the Blues,” a ten-bar form (instead of the usual twelve). Bill Reichenbach, who rarely soloed, took several authoritative choruses after which the horns traded fives (!) with the drums. Bassist Jim Hughart sounded strong as part of the ensemble and in his few solos.