Tom Harrell: Number Five

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it," they say, and since coming to HighNote in 2007, trumpeter Tom Harrell has lived by that old adage, utilizing the same quintet for its auspicious debut, Light On, and three subsequent recordings, culminating in 2011's outstanding Time of the Sun. Number Five continues Harrell's winning streak with the same line-up, but if each successive recording has reflected the ongoing growth of one of today's most compelling small groups—the chemistry deeper and the interaction that much more assured—then Number Five goes even deeper, while at the same time introducing some significant changes to Harrell's ever-modus operandi.

Number Five represents a number of firsts. With the exception of the title track to 2010's Roman Nights—an intimate duo with pianist Danny Grissett—this is the Harrell's first to break the group down into a number of permutations and combinations. Only four pieces feature the full-blown quintet, in fact; the rest of Number Five features quartet, trio, duo and solo tracks where the only commonality is Harrell—his unerring lyricism, effortless sense of swing and warm, buttery tone on both trumpet and flugelhorn.

Number Five is also Harrell's first album with this quintet to move away from all-original material. That's not to suggest there aren't plenty of Harrell compositions, filled with the memorable melodies and under-the-hood ideas that somehow manage to sound easy in the hands of this group. "Journey to the Stars" is a reprise of Roman Nights' duo with Grissett, based on a soft series of repeating arpeggios that builds effortlessly over six minutes, with Harrell overdubbing a small choir of muted trumpets to add greater shape to what is, ultimately, a premise powerful in its folk-like simplicity. "Right as Rain" is a relatively short ballad for the entire group. A largely through-composed piece with just enough room for a brief flugelhorn solo from Harrell, the timbre of the song remains absolutely predicated on tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery's equally rich tone and nuanced interpretation of Harrell's eminently singable theme—alone, and in concert.

That's not to suggest Escoffery doesn't get plenty of solo space throughout Number Five. "No. 5" and "Melody in B Flat," are the set's most effervescently swinging tracks, and in both cases the saxophonist's ability to weave, with assured focus, through Harrell's complex changes leads to high points amongst the album's many milestones, while Escoffery's solo on "GT" is one of his most searing on record. It's another first for this quintet, as well: a largely free piece, based only around a very brief head—bassist Ugonna Okegwo descending divergently against Harrell, Escoffery and Grissett's ascending theme—it unfolds into an exhilarating series of extended solo and collaborative free play, bolstered by drummer Johnathan Blake's brilliantly unfettered push-and-pull.

Blake is equally incendiary on Dizzy Gillespie's "Blue 'n' Boogie," one of Number Five's four covers and a set-opener that's as strong a statement of intent as Harrell could deliver. All the positives about his fifth recording with this quintet remain the same, but there are more significant shifts in the air as well. A fiery trumpet/drums duo, it's the kind of track that could only come from two players familiar enough to anticipate each other's moves while being, at the same time, utterly unafraid of taking increasing risks

"I like to keep things open, and try to maintain spontaneity," says Harrell, a man of few words who does most of his talking through his music. "'Journey to the Stars' was done, as a duo, for the first time in the studio, as was 'Present'; that was the first time we'd done it as a quartet with that ballad arrangement, without any prior rehearsal. That helps keep things spontaneous. "

More than half of Number Five was unrehearsed, in fact, speaking even more to the remarkable simpatico of Harrell's quintet that the music feels both loose and tight at the same time; spontaneous, to be sure, but with an uncanny sense of intrinsic structure.

"Present," for flugelhorn, piano, bass and drums is one of two tracks that, along with the bass-less trio of "The Question," features Grissett on Fender Rhodes, an instrument that's figured increasingly in Harrell's work over the past few years. "I'm hearing electric piano more and more," says Harrell. "Voicings sound different; the mood changes. I like the different colors you can achieve with the two instruments; it's nice to have options. I also like to choose between trumpet and flugelhorn; they have different timbres, even though the notes might be the same. The sky changes over the course of the day, with different moods created by the different colors."

Harrell also clearly enjoys turning theory into practice. "Preludium" may, at its core, be an arrangement of a six-bar exercise in Vincent Pereschetti's seminal 1961 book, Twentieth Century Harmony: Creative Aspects and Practice, but Harrell, Escofferey and Okegwo manage to turn what would be an academic exercise for many into a tone poem of unsettling dissonance and dark, spare beauty.

As much as Harrell enjoys working with expanded sonic palettes and high concepts, he remains primarily and emphatically about lyricism and the heart of song, with the set's two other covers demonstrating Number Five's "everything is different, everything stays the same" duality. Harrell goes it completely a capella for the first time on one of his own dates, with Don Raye and Gene DePaul's classic "Star Eyes" and Tadd Dameron's lesser-known "A Blue Time, and in each case finding his way to the song's essence, delivering the melodies with such elegance and deceptive simplicity that it's almost possible to feel the changes, the pulses and the harmonies, despite there being nothing more than one voice and just a hint of reverb.

"This album represents where we're at right now," Harrell says, "an evolution over past recordings. I believe in music as an evolutionary power. I believe in peaceful revolution. I believe in love. Music reflects the world, and I'm trying to convey love through my music. The world of art represents a peaceful philosophy towards life."

And, in the case of Harrell, his quintet and Number Five, it represents the gentle power and pure freedom of expression that stem from longstanding musical relationships defined by trust, strength of conviction... and, yes, love.

Liner Notes copyright © 2024 John Kelman.

Number Five can be purchased here.

Contact John Kelman at All About Jazz.
With the realization that there will always be more music coming at him than he can keep up with, John wonders why anyone would think that jazz is dead or dying.

Comments