Tom Wakeling: West by Northwest

West by Northwest is another in a recent series of splendid small-group concert recordings, this one by bassist Tom Wakeling's close-knit quartet, taped in February 2024 for a receptive audience at the Ravenscroft Center in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Wakeling had teamed for a number of years with pianist Angelo Versace and drummer Dom Moio. When trumpeter Jason Carder signed on, expanding the group's size from trio to quartet, Wakeling writes, "we all knew instantly we'd found the magic formula." There is no disclaiming that opinion; Carder lends essential weight and color to every number, earnestly embracing each melody and soloing with creativity and assurance. His presence raises the overall performance from merely respectable to a level somewhere above that.

Even so, the concert's success greatly rests on the clear premise that everyone plays his part well. The group dynamic is strong and consistent, as would be expected from a working ensemble whose individual creds are as substantial and impressive as theirs. The choice of material is equally noteworthy, disavowing compositions by members of the quartet in favor of nine charismatic jazz themes and a lone standard from the Great American Songbook, the Gershwin brothers' "The Man I Love."

The concert opens with Ellis Marsalis' buoyant "Swingin' at the Haven" before turning south to survey Luis Bonfa's alluring "Menina Flor" and Mario Bauza's seductive "Mambo Inn," which are sandwiched around Benny Golson's graceful "Out of the Past." Next up are back-to-back renditions of a dissimilar song with the same name, "Lotus Blossom," the first the well-known ballad by Billy Strayhorn, the second a hard-charging flag-waver by Kenny Dorham. Percy Heath's soulful "Watergate Blues" (stylish intro courtesy of Wakeling, perceptive solos by Versace, Carder and Wakeling again) precedes "The Man I Love," a trim mash-up of Duke Ellington's handsome "Angelica" and "Purple Gazelle" (wherein Moio offers a dazzling extended solo) and the evening's robust finale, Thelonious Monk's "Evidence."

When all is planned and served, Wakeling's quartet repays the Ravenscroft audience's admission price with interest. It's a concert that, even though best seen, as all such events are, should pay similar dividends to those who were not able to be there but choose to savor the experience by appraising, sans vision, its hour-plus repertoire of exemplary jazz.

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