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2007 North Sea Jazz Cruise Day 4: Heaven And Hell

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"We're here to celebrate the power of the Lord, as evidenced by this rocking boat."



Healing powers were very much alive, and not just for seasick passengers, as those words opened the Sunday morning jazz gospel service on Day 4 of the inaugural North Sea Jazz Cruise as the ship steered through rough waters between Germany and Sweden. Some close-minded attitudes (uh, OK, mine) got a thorough shaking and one of those touching personal moments one doesn't expect from a major player on a big stage were reviving regardless of faith.



Maybe it's best to start with the following confession: I've never been particularly fond of Kirk Whalum.



One of a large breed of smooth musicians who eschews discovery for commercial success, I scoff. Sure, he's got his gospel albums as a way of carving out his own niche, but I visited and graduated from that scene right around the time Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart were experiencing revelations about the all-important virtue of forgiveness.



But in main performance hall, Whalum took the stage alone and welcomed the 80 percent capacity crowd to his "living room."



"We're from diverse backgrounds, but we're here because we all love music," he said. "But I would suggest we all have something more in common. For instance, when the boat rocks this way, we all don't have a choice."



A cannon-like explosion cracked through the theater at that exact moment as an extra large wave slammed into the hull, ensuring a hearty round of icebreaking laughs and applause.



He played a gentle opening hymn unaccompanied (he said something about "I Come To The Garden Alone," but I'm unsure if it was the title or merely the theme), mostly a straight melody with a modest amount of embellishing. At that moment I had no concept if this was a solo or group hour, but enlightenment lay just ahead.



"We're going to just sort of let this grow from here, as we try to do in life," Whalum said, calling keyboardist Bobby Sparks to the stage.



They played a duet of "What A Friend We Have In Jesus," again true to the melody, but Sparks expanded on the embellishments with constant dashes of note rolling at the end of his phrases, punctuating them with some shakes and bends. Whalum followed the keyboardist's lead by stretching a bit more before they smoothed the waters to finish. Saxophonist Keith Anderson and Dean Brown (starting with a harmonica before switching to guitar) were next to join.



"I don't know what we're going to do, but we'll tell you about it," Whalum said as they huddled up.



Everybody but Sparks got in a tight circle as they launched into a traditional hand-clapping gospel arrangement of "Amen," each doing free-blowing interpretations of the melody. Brown broke off into a full solo well off away theme that spoke cleanly rather than with pitches and bends, Whalum following with a bouncy gait of brisk choppy notes. The final group jam progressed up the scale in half notes as Whalum brought the crowd in on vocals. It was one of those classic crowd-pleasers smooth artists do often, but with a rare authenticity to the mood for the players as well as they exchanged a group hug at the end.



"One of things you realize as a traveling musician is no man is an island," Whalum said. "There's no such thing as a solo artist...I talk and pray with Keith on the phone. I've known Dean Brown for 25 years. It's not just what you see up here. There's a lot of love behind the scenes."



Bassist and cruise host Marcus Miller joined and they launched into "Christ Is All," the group now large enough to be the kind of smooth ensemble I usually associate with Whalum. His extended solo was the cushioning comfort he's good at, a savory way of making instrumental gospel appealing to a wide audience.



But if I was worried about the show settling into a lull, this was a quick stop in the garden of Eden. The next call was for saxophonist James Carter ("I just knocked on his door. We'll see if he wakes up," Whalum said) for a strutting arrangement of "Walk With Me."



"I want Jesus to walk with me, but apparently Jesus can walk in 5/4 time," Whalum said.



Carter walked on as Whalum's solo ended, showing no signs of drowsiness as he dashed immediately into a caffeinated barrage with the notes level and linked, aside from the minefield of high-end jumps. Whalum joined in for a loose collaborative before taking it down again at the end. (Personal from my notes: "right now this guy (Carter) has to be this trip's discovery of a well-known person I didn't know nearly well enough").



Nearing the end, Whalum turned the stage over to Miller, who again started things on a one-to-one personal level by paying tribute to his father, Myles, an African Orthodox minister who went to music school planning to be a musician until the birth of his kids.



"My dad had to make a decision: His dream or kids," the younger Miller said. "He worked on trains, he deferred his dream for his family. He played organ in church every Sunday, He played music in the house all time. It was difficult for him, I'm sure, but never did I feel resented as a child, never did I feel I was in the way...there was never anything me and my brothers needed."



"C'mon, man" he said gesturing to his dad. "We'll find something for you to do."



A huge round of applause rang as they met and shook hands on stage, with the son seating his father at the keyboard and Sparks standing beside him to turn the sheet music. The band launched a slow traditional gospel arrangement of "Amazing Grace," Myles Miller wringing long notes with a bit of twists from the keys as his son wandered the stage playing bass clarinet, frequently returning to his dad's side. From there Miller seemed to progress into some kind of medley of hymns, loose enough I really didn't quite lock into any particular one.



By the time the song ended, the ship was no longer rocking.



Whalum retuned to the stage at about 11 p.m., the scheduled end of the service, and after saying "don't be afraid, I'm not going to preach to you, necessarily," did exactly that for several minutes. But few people found motivation to leave in his words or extra demand on their time, as the saxman talked not about John 3:16, but the verses just before it focusing on an outwardly pious man who still hadn't figured out the "born once, die twice; born twice, die once" concept of the physical and spiritual being.



"I want more because I happen to know this cruise is going to end, and I'm going to go home and there's going to be some bills on my desk," Whalum said in a message punctuated with low-volume organ drawls from Sparks and "amens" from scattered people in the crowd. "My father just had a stroke and one day just changed his life forever.



"He used to just get up and be around, Now he can't even swallow," Whalum said. His father says he doesn't worry about it as long as he is where God is, made of the same material and with a spirit whose life even on Earth isn't confined by restrictions on his physical being.



The music resumed with "Falling In Love With Jesus," Whalum singing vocals and Carter filling the end of lines with brief but loose embellishments. Whalum got the crowd to its feet and hands swaying in the air with a sing along of the choruses, The full cast took the stage for a final rousing rendition of "Just A Closer Walk With Thee," bringing the service to a spiritual climax by leading band members into the crowd where they separated and played to the people in the aisles one-by-one. They met for a final loose stage collaborative before shouting their final instrumental tributes and ending the service 15 minutes passed the scheduled time. Unlike many churches I've been to, there was no rush out the door to be first in line for Sunday brunch at Denny's.



Yeah, I've got a different opinion of him and it's not simply Christian charity.



The ship's port call for the day was Gothenburg, Sweden's second-largest city with 430,000 people, a very pleasant place I spent much time in during college thanks to a girlfriend that used to be an exchange student there. Mediocre weather and a long shuttle ride into town kept me from doing anything other than a quick early afternoon run to the center square mall for some essentials like Diet Coke and Muunmi biscuits (a.k.a. great tasting animal crackers featuring cute cartoon dinosaurs that resemble Bob from "Dilbert"). On a nice day, it's hard to beat scavenging the bushes alongside the trails in the suburban villages for blueberries, assuming you've got a kindly Swedish host mom who bakes them into a three-inch-deep peasant cobbler containing nothing more than a topping of flour and butter dough rolled into long criss-crossed ropes (top liberally with real unsweetened and unwhipped cream). They also have a cool amusement park.



The 4 p.m. concert in the Blue Note observation lounge was guitarist Ulf Wakenius, a former Oscar Peterson sideman who might be best thought as a Swedish John McLaughlin or Pat Metheny. His tribute to Keith Jarrett on the 2006 album Notes From The Heart is a rather ambitious aspiration for a guitar which he rises to a highly successful level. He paid tributes of similar accomplishment to Peterson (two songs) and Michael Brecker during the ship performance, then threw some meditative Eastern flair in with a "Japanese calypso" that was a plucky, chirpy note walk through one of that country's lavish gardens. Much of the rest of his quartet's show was the kind of light progressive fusion/mainstream blend that marks the Metheny/McLaughin base (a big nod must be given to the wise purity of Lars Danielsson's upright acoustic bass), but the highlights were enough to elevate it to above-average status.



The headline evening concert was the man who initiated me to jazz, David Sanborn, back in the early 80s when he was teaming up with Marcus Miller. But despite having his albums surgically implanted in my brain and memorizing every note (and a bunch of ads for Labatts) on two year's worth of Night Music, I'd never seen him live. Although it's been a decade since I've really paid much attention to his work, anticipation was obviously high.



It was, um, OK.



Put another way, this was a pro gig, my phrase for a show where the players are of such high talent the foundation is going to be solid. Sanborn certainly delivered the tone and chops he's famous for, Miller slapped catchy notes like a drill sergeant and nothing was a dud with the crowd. But not much was touching the heart. My favorite moments were the few chats with Miller between songs where Sanborn, as he was on Night Music, was highly charming and funny precisely because he's strangely awkward at it.



"I was trying to think how long we've known each... my back hurts just thinking about it," he said. "They say that goldfish have a three-second memory. I don't know how they figured that out... dropped a waterproof survey in the tank? To me that seems like a nice thing because once round the bulb and it's a whole new world... um, what was I saying?"



The material was mostly from his most recent albums, with only one ballad I remember from those early days. Whalum joined for the finale and they got a rousing standing ovation from the audience, so I'll let the collective opinion stand as the final one.



The rough waters the previous night motivated me to attend the first of two main shows, in case conditions again made the later one intolerable. It was a smart move as the rolling got even worse shortly after setting sail, ensuring a second early end to the evening. With an early morning port call in Norway, one of my favorite five countries in the world, it's not like I minded.



Coming on Day 5: Rejection and redemption, starring Scofield, Medeski, Martin and Wood.

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