Eric Alexander Plus Harold Mabern!

[Brad]

Eric Alexander is appearing with Harold Mabern at Shanghai Jazz in Madison, New Jersey this Friday and Saturday and I'M GOING!. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! We're going Friday.

Here's the link for Shanghai Jazz if you're interested. Food's not bad (chinese) and the owner, David, is a great guy.

[John Tapscott]

Brad: You should be excited. I wish I could join you. Many Board members would differ with me on this, but IMHO, Eric is a great tenor player, one of the best out there today. I just got "Nightlife in Tokyo" with Mabern. This is an exceptionally good CD.

[Leeway]

I recommend the General Tso Chicken on the menu. I always recommend the General Tso chicken.

I saw the same group in DC. I think you'll enjoy it. I hope you'll give us a report.

[BFrank]

Here's a show I wish I had seen!

From yesterday's NY Times:

+++

November 29, 2004

JAZZ REVIEW | ERIC ALEXANDER AND GEORGE COLEMAN

Two Saxes Bopping in a Post-Bop Kind of Mood

By BEN RATLIFF

The tenor saxophonists Eric Alexander and George Coleman, a student and a master nearly twice his age, led a quintet together at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola last week under the rubric of a centennial celebration of Coleman Hawkins, the third such homage in New York jazz clubs this fall. Mr. Alexander and Mr. Coleman dutifully played Hawkinsiana like "Body and Soul" during the early part of the week, but on Friday they ditched the tribute and turned to their own style. What they played, a set that gradually warmed up and stretched out, was the golden mean of post-bop, the mainstream East Coast jazz of the late 1950's, filtered through Mr. Coleman's sensibilities.

Aside from any personal language of harmony or rhythm, the overriding qualities of aggression and restraint are what have built post-bop saxophonists into major figures. Those that zealously explode (John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy) or forlornly implode (Wayne Shorter, Lee Konitz) create cults.

Mr. Coleman, 69, doesn't go for either extreme. He has always been a jazz moderate with fairly sophisticated harmonic knowledge and a strong blues sensibility; his early work with Miles Davis - an engagement that lasted for a little more than a year and produced several albums - has just been reissued in a new boxed set from Sony called "Seven Steps: The Complete Columbia Recordings of Miles Davis, 1963-1964." If Mr. Coleman's legacy seems elusive compared with the thousands of musicians who were influenced by Coltrane or Mr. Shorter, you can hear his sensibilities replayed with a kind of scholarly honesty by Mr. Alexander.

For the past several years, Mr. Alexander's band has been the same as Mr. Coleman's: the pianist Harold Mabern, the bassist John Webber, and the drummer Joe Farnsworth. Through the set, the bass and drums plugged away with determined noneccentricity; Mr. Farnsworth's short fills are stone archaisms for a player in his mid-30's. But Mr. Mabern is a wild, larkish element, a contemporary of Mr. Coleman's who will quote any melody that pops into his head and who plays dense chords through his improvisations.

Mr. Coleman has a more eccentric relation to the beat now than he did in the early 1960's, laying back in it or rushing forward in gusts of circular breathing. And if he still plays similar patterns, his style now sounds more distinct. When he took a solo after Mr. Mabern, he set himself apart from that continuous, manic playing with something more delicate: fractured, smoky phrases in extended harmony, gapped by rests.

Mr. Alexander, by contrast, played on the beat. He used some of the same improvising patterns as Mr. Coleman, and a broad sound that stuck more often to the lower-middle register, which he occasionally escaped for unexpected effects like a fluttering figure that became a rough overtone shriek, as if a bit of Coltrane's wilder late period had been smuggled into more formal music.

The set's tunes were not particularly distinguished: a blues, a bossa, the 1960's movie ballad "Maybe September" and a finale in which the saxophonists traded chorus-long improvisations on "I've Got Rhythm" chord changes. But they were used as raw material for expression.

The thing about moderates like Mr. Coleman and Mr. Alexander is that they retain the capacity to surprise: after everything under the sun has been done in jazz, they can still pull you up short, putting broad knowledge and playfulness within a context of pure classicism.

[Brad]

I recommend the General Tso Chicken on the menu. I always recommend the General Tso chicken.

I saw the same group in DC. I think you'll enjoy it. I hope you'll give us a report.

Indeed I will. Can't wait.

[jazzmessenger]

Alexander and Mabern are also playing in Columbia, Missouri at the end of January. I am thinking about going there to see their show. It should be a very good one.

[Brad]

I heard a cut on the radion from his new album on HighNote. Sounded pretty good.

[sal]

I just got "Nightlife in Tokyo" with Mabern. This is an exceptionally good CD.

I agree. A fine CD. Ron Carter sounds great with the band.

I've only seen Eric Alexander once, with the supergroup One For All. It was an excellent show. Look forward to seeing him with the Mabern group.

[etherbored]

eric is not only a top-flight player, but a fine young man as well.

i had the pleasure of spending an evening sitting through some music @ smoke with him at the same table once, as we're both from the same part of the country.

he can play it all - from driving challegne and suprise to beautiful ballad.

enjoy!

-e-

[cannonball-addict]

Brad: You should be excited. I wish I could join you. Many Board members would differ with me on this, but IMHO, Eric is a great tenor player, one of the best out there today. I just got "Nightlife in Tokyo" with Mabern. This is an exceptionally good CD.

John,

I usually dig Alexander but I found him to be very repetitive on a lot of these tunes. He could have taken much shorter, sweeter solos.

P.S. It's kind of neat that Eric is now touring with his mentor. It probably evokes a lot of good playing from both men.

P.P.S. Anyone who visits AAJ has seen an album constantly being featured on one of the sidebars by a pianist (different from the bassist in Alexander's band) named Jon Weber. It is called "Simple Complex," and for any fans of Alexander, this disc is a must because he blows the hell out of some really sauntering grooves. Weber, the pianist is a stellar composer. The CD also features Diego Urcola and Gary Burton among others.

[Brad]

I saw Eric and Harold Mabern on Friday and it was just the two of them, which surprised me. I had heard Bill Charlap and his friend Jon Gordon do the same thing and I don't think it worked so I had trepidations. I also was worried because we had taken a couple of friends who aren't jazz fans.

I didn't have to worry because they were pretty fantastic. It also helped that we were seated less than 5 feet from where they were playing. They played mostly standards and recognizable material. They did play Naima however.

This may be me but when he played Shadow of Your Smile I thought I was listening to Dex. He seemed to sound like Dex a lot. Also when Alexander started playing, there was no small talk, no song introduction or personnel introduction; they just played nonstop. The one who suffered there was Harold Mabern because he never got a break. It was just nonstop playing for 90 or so minutes. Incredible!

Alexander is either very shy or very intense (my wife thought intense) because he didn't say too much. Harold Mabern is very loquacious on the other hand and quite a character. After the show, he was telling us about his new album on Venus and this and that. I got a couple of pictures taken with him so I was very happy.

Our friends were really into it and also loved Harold. I don't know if I made them jazz fans but they loved the show.

[Dan Gould]

Brad,

I remember when Eric first got some attention, there was a lot of talk of his being inspired by Dex, so its not surprising to me that you would say that. Of course, the fact that Dex played Shadow of Your Smile so often might have something to do with it, too.

My wife and I saw Eric with Norman Simmons and local bass/drums and I seem to recall that Norman did all the stage announcements.

Glad you enjoyed it. I'll tell you, the best way to solidify your friend's as jazz fans might be something that would remind them of the show, and even though its a different tenor, any of Houston Person's many offerings on Highnote Records. Lots of familiar standards on there, great music. A friend who's been a cabaret singer absolutely loves the Person albums I've exposed her to. There's something to be said for familiar melodies. Just a thought.

[Leeway]

Brad, thanks for the report. I'm really surprised that EA did not bring a bassist or dummer. I wonder if there's a story there? I had the same reaction to EA when I saw him last year. Sort of off in the middle distance somewhere. He really didn't connect to the audience on a personal level, although his playing was fine, which certainly is the bottom line.

How was the food?

[Brad]

Food was great. It was certainly kind of weird with him that he didn't connect. In fact he didn't even really try to connect. When he could have done so, he would look off into the distance. At first I thought he was being smug but I guess that's just his style. He was certainly into his music, that's for sure.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I've seen Eric Alexander quite a few times now and I think his persona on stage is nerves. I thought I read somewhere that everyone gets stage fright every time they play. Maybe he never got over that. I've talked to him between and after sets and he's always been relaxed and easy-going so I know that seriousness isn't the real EA. Maybe he tries too hard?

BTW, the way he channels LTD is one of the things I really like about him. I never got to see Dex live and having someone play like him is nirvana. The funny thing is, as much as he sounds like Dex, he doesn't quote "Laura" every other tune and he has that little trill with the half-closed lower keys that has become a pretty recognizable figure for him.

Later,

Kevin

[Brad]

I never got to see Dex live and having someone play like him is nirvana.

My thoughts exactly. I imagined that if I closed my eyes I might be listening to Dex.

[Roundsound]

I saw EA at a club in Miami Beach a couple of months ago. Kenny Drew Jr was the piano player (he was terrific) The bass player was the house player who I've seen several times. I don't know the drummer. Anyhow, they played mostly standards. EA was a monster as usual. He spoke at the end for a couple of minutes. He seemed relaxed and I did not see any nervousness about being on stage. I believe he is coming back to South Florida to play again with Kenny Drew Jr.