Well
for over two decades now, Down Beat music critics
have been saying that real jazz music is dead and
that smooth jazzers such as Kenny G and Kirk Whalum
are not real jazz artists. Well, there's a Big Band
of twenty-something Bostonian musicians calling themselves
Kendrick Oliver & the New Life Jazz Orchestra
who are proving those critics wrong on their forthcoming
debut cd "Welcome to the New Life" on the
independent Sphere Entertainment label. They are bringing
new life to the foundational genre of jazz popularized
by Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington in the 1930s.
Their zesty sound is faithful to the form with a youthful
bouyancy and a sense of improvisation and extemporaneousness
that's lost on today's formulaic jazz practitioners.
What further sets this jazz apart from today's and
yesterdays jazz is the fusion of black church emotionalism
into the very core of the music.
Recorded
live at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston, the dozen song
feast opens with the delicious entree of "Welcome
to New Life" which sounds like a New Orleans
church service on Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras.
On the intro to that original tune they promise a
handclapping, spiritual journey and they don't disappoint.
Count Basie was regarded as a top bandleader, not
a composer. Consequently, he wrote very few pieces,
but here New Life unearths his arcane "Inghin
the Ooh" and merges it with "Moten's Swing,"
the somewhat obscure materpiece by long forgotten,
youthful ragtime pianist Bennie Moten who died of
a botched tonscilectomy in 1935. They also bring new
life to Basie's hopping "Jumpin' at the Woodside."
One
of the interesting aspects of this band is they prefer
to tackle the lesser known classics than the more familiar
ones. For instance, they take Duke Ellington & Billy
Strayhorn's "Imagine My Frustration" with
it's juke house blues vamps and makes it totally their
own. It differs from Ella Fitzgerald's 1949 birth of
cool reading with vocalist Monica Lynk's streetwise
rendition. Her instrument packs a gospel emotion with
a Streisand-like approach to her note flourishes that
brings an entirely new dimension to the classic. Lynx
also puts her stamp on the moody seven minute version
of Billie Holiday's often-covered "God Bless the
Child." Instead of singing it as a dirge as Holiday
and most of her copycats have, Lynx sings it as an inspirational
declaration. She also shines, shouts and shimmeys on
the uptempo piano-driven original tune "The Comeback."
Other
new instrumental material includes the easy flow of
"Another Day" and the racy rhythm of the spiritual
"Kid From Nazareth." The band also coveres
Milt Hinton's "Pluckin' the Bass," a rocking
Creole version of the Negro spiritual "Joshua Fit
the Battle" and a deeply moving suite of "Wade
in the Water" that begins with a simmer and concludes
with a boiling Sanctified church motif complete with
foot stomping and handclapping with the boogie of brass
leading the service. The Berklee-trained, Houston native
ringleader, Kendrick Oliver, is clearly onto something
with this refreshing new approach to old standards and
new standards with the classic touch.
As
they say in the liner notes, they intend to swing like
Count Basie but have the impact of Mahalia Jackson.
For the sake of the dying art of straight ahead jazz,
let's hope they do. Bill
Carpenter - Former Writer, People Magazine
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