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Consonantally monumental
You’ll find the consonants M, T, B in the word Tombstone. And there’s something monumental here. Peter Bernstein, the B in the eponymous acronym, proves himself as a mellow guitar master few can rival. On an album here with Wayne Shorter and Hank Mobley tunes as a fitting epitaph in the blend not only did Bernstein echo that mellow sentiment on Better Angels which came out this year but now out today in one of the last essential releases of 2024 before an inevitable avalanche of Christmas tat descends to threaten our ears with tinnitus, Solid Jackson is the work of a supergroup in all but name not only for the initialised leaders M for piano great Brad Mehldau – who was also on Better Angels – T for tenorist Mark Turner whose work on ECM in recent years has classic written all over it – but also however unbidden let’s add a few more initials unbilled in the group name so G for bass don Larry Grenadier and S for the swinging Bill Stewart on drums why not.
Starring role for the syrup
Includes the Mehldau title track and the deliciously entitled Maury’s Grey Wig – I wonder is that a homage to the much put upon hapless salesman Good Fellas character, Morrie? Surely someone must know. And remember, Morrie’s wigs are tested against hurricane winds.
Among the material Bernstein’s Ditty for Dewey is among his originals (a piece that was also found in another treatment on Better Angels).
And there’s a take on Wayne Shorter’s Angola relayed a little more slowly than The Soothsayer version plus Hank Mobley gem Soft Impression from Straight No Filter, an album of Mobley’s that had to wait until the 1980s, around the time Mobley passed away, to come out – even though its origins are the 60s.
Antecedent ‘peace’ of the action
M. T. B. put out an album also on Criss Cross recorded in the 1990s but not released until 2000 called Consenting Adults that has almost the same personnel – but it was Leon Parker on drums rather than Stewart. It contained a couple of versions of Jackie McLean’s Little Melonae on it and a peach of a solo from Turner on Horace Silver classic, ‘Peace.’
On this new one It’s interesting that McCoy Tyner was the pianist on both the Shorter and Mobley numbers chosen.
But Mehldau does not sound like him in the least even whilst staying faithful to the idiom both tunes command. He sounds like Brad Mehldau, a sound widely adopted by many pianists since the American first emerged in the 1990s. Only this week for instance we thought of Mehldau’s sound given how closely Alexi Tuomarila cleaves to his touch in certain passages of his new album. Other players heavily influenced by Mehldau include Belfast pianist Scott Flanigan.
Turn up for the books
Turner’s hugely laconic ‘1946’ is also among the Solid Jackson selections which among other earlier versions appeared on his Quartet’s Live at the Village Vanguard album issued in 2023 and has also been given big band welly by the Frankfurt Radio Big Band.
Homage to the long gone
Very much a 1960s kind of record – as reimagined by a post-Young Lions retro mindset in the 1990s and now rethought about again 30 years on – even if the sonics on the Criss Cross release don’t sound anything like the Blue Note sound of The Soothsayer given how much studio technology has changed.
But if you think of the album as a kind of homage to a time and place in jazz that doesn’t exist in the same way any more you won’t feel let down. And yet it isn’t in the least stuffy.
Again like Better Angels Mehldau sounds very happy and contributes a lot. It’s exciting that he is touring in 2025 with Christian McBride and Marcus Gilmore but before that is back in the UK playing Wigmore Hall in February, a gig that has already sold out.
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