Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Brian Charette: Alphabet City

5

Brian Charette: Alphabet City

By

View read count
Brian Charette: Alphabet City
Organist Brian Charette brings his A-game to Alphabet City. But who would expect anything else from this consummate artist? After delivering a covers-heavy program with two different trio lineups on Good Tipper (Posi-Tone, 2014), Charette returns here with an all-originals outing that finds him in the company of guitarist Will Bernard and drummer Rudy Royston.

Alphabet City, in some respects, is an ode to Charette's New York city home, haunts and habits. But that minimizes the scope and influences connected to this project. In truth, this album, like nearly everything else in Charette's discography, is about Charette's entire world, not a single section of a city. His early musical passions, vast experience(s), and general love of music—be it bop-based, bright, burbling, bizarre, or built with Eastern European influences—are all wrapped together in his work.

While these three musicians work well as a single unit, each has his own respective gifts to share. Charette's diversified approach to music-making manages to keep things fresh; Royston plays with a marriage of technique and taste, alternately delivering direct blows, worming his way into the heart of a groove, and playing around the edges of a piece; and Bernard straddles musical worlds, simultaneously pulling from jazz, soul, and funk bags. It's an odd combination in some respects, but it works.

There's modal music in odd time signatures ("Split Black"), ambling and carefree performances ("West Village"), and mysterious, Hungarian-influenced music to be heard here ("Hungarian Major"). Charette and company might be knee deep in bebop on one track ("East Village"), but the next number might go someplace completely different, as the trio explores some serious funk that questions the absence of a Fred Wesley figure in a James Brown biopic ("They Left Fred Out"). There are also intentionally edgy, alien, and fusion-based pursuits ("Not A Purist"), energetically swinging blues excursions ("The Vague Reply"), and gospel-tinged peace offerings to admire ("White Lies").

Given Charette's track record and the skills of the players involved, it should come as no surprise that Alphabet City is as good as it is.

Track Listing

East Village; They Left Fred Out; West Village; Not A Purist; Sharpie Moustache; Disco Nap; Hungarian Major; Avenue A; Detours; Split Black; White Lies; The Vague Reply.

Personnel

Brian Charette
organ, Hammond B3

Brian Charette: organ; Will Bernard: guitar; Rudy Royston: drums.

Album information

Title: Alphabet City | Year Released: 2015 | Record Label: Posi-Tone Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT



Brian Charette Concerts


Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.