Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Charles Tolliver: With Love

196

Charles Tolliver: With Love

By

View read count
Charles Tolliver: With Love
Charles Tolliver burst onto the scene in the '60s as a young trumpet player to be reckoned with, appearing on seminal Blue Note albums by the likes of Jackie McLean, Horace Silver and Andrew Hill. He later fronted the adventurous Music Inc. quartet and founded his own label, Strata East, with pianist Stanley Cowell, before more or less dropping off the jazz map.

But the 64-year-old Tolliver is back with a vengeance, and With Love is his first ever release as a leader for the label he contributed so much to four decades ago. And an auspicious debut it is, highlighting Tolliver's energetic trumpet work and innovative big band arrangements.

For the occasion, the Florida-born, New York City-raised Tolliver has assembled a truly all-star big band lineup, featuring a rhythm section with Cowell, a longtime associate, the young gun pianist Robert Glasper, bassist Cecil McBee and drummer Victor Lewis—and a high-octane horn section including saxophonists Billy Harper, Craig Handy and Howard Johnson.

The set list is drawn primarily from older Tolliver compositions, but the sound is anything but dated. Pieces like "Mournin' Variations, "Suspicion and especially the hard-driving "Right Now, which McLean used as the title track for his landmark 1965 date, are heard in fresh, vigorously arranged new versions that toe the line between hard bop and the avant-garde. Also noteworthy is a winning arrangement of "Round Midnight that breathes new life into the Monk classic and features some of Tolliver's most impressive solo turns.

Here's hoping we hear more often from this underrated jazz titan and his impressive big band.

Track Listing

Rejoicin

Personnel

Charles Tolliver, David Guy, Chris Albert, Keyon Harrold, David Weiss, James Zollar, trumpets; Joe Fiedler, Clark Gayton, Stafford Hunter, Jason Jackson, trombones; Aaron Johnson, bass trombone, tuba; Todd Bashore, Jimmy Cozier, Craig Handy, Billy Harper, Bil Saxton, Howard Johnson, saxophones; Stanley Cowell, Robert Glasper, piano; Cecil McBee, bass; Victor Lewis, drums.

Album information

Title: With Love | Year Released: 2006 | Record Label: Blue Note Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




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.

Near

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.