Pick your jaw up off the floor
Some 20 years since the jazz musician Carl Allen last put out an album as a leader. ”As a drummer,” he says, ”the most important relationship is between the bass and drums. The dream team for this record is my friend and brother, Christian McBride, and the phenomenal Chris Potter. Listening to Chris reminded me so much of the Sonny Rollins chordless trio date, Live at the Village Vanguard. That intuition solidified my decision to record with saxophone, bass, and drums.
‘I trusted the gifts that McBride and Potter brought to the table’
”I wanted the recording process to feel organic, natural, and free-flowing. That led to the scrapping of some planned tunes that didn’t feel right and others chosen spontaneously in the studio.
”Some tunes planned prior to the studio session didn’t feel right, so we omitted them, while others were decided on the spot. We did not rehearse before entering the studio, and we recorded the entire album in about five hours. I trusted the gifts that McBride and Potter brought to the table, allowing their interpretations to shape the music.”
Rolls in like a freight train
Reader we spoil you today.
It’s a treat sharing a thumpingly compelling version from Allen of Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays 1980s Offramp classic ‘James.’
Offramp (ECM, 1982) was the first album that saw Metheny use a guitar synthesiser.
Allen, 63, whose influences include Art Blakey and Elvin Jones played with Freddie Hubbard in the 1980s.
Hear him on the title track of 1987 Blue Note album Life Flight.
Ready for Freddie
Also on Tippin’ and streaming already too is just as good a take on Hubbard’s ‘Happy Times’.
What’s more it is a tune that goes back to 1962’s The Artistry of Freddie Hubbard.
In the horns on that 60s track was Blue Train‘s Curtis Fuller in the section. Hubbard’s soloing is glorious.
I was only ever lucky to have heard Hubbard play once. That gig was later captured on an album issued as At the Warsaw Jazz Jamboree.
It took place at a festival held in 1991 at the Warsaw Operetka (now the Roma), a theatre that backed on to Nowogrodzka Street close to the Jazz Forum offices, a magazine that I worked for at the time.
Hubbard influences Jeremy Pelt today
You get closer to the jazz source given Allen’s long term tenure with the hugely influential Hubbard whose sound lives on in the artistry of leading players today such as Jeremy Pelt.
Inside Straight
Allen has also worked a lot with Christian McBride.
Tremendously for instance within McBride’s Inside Straight organisation.
Their romping 2009 Mack Avenue belter Kind of Brown that notably included a version of Hubbard’s ‘Theme For Kareem’ is ideal.
Weighty 80s relatable
The bass icon is significant on this new storming version of ‘James’.
Furthermore, it features a bravura rendition of the theme. And there is also some scintillating improvisation from Chris Potter. Y’all remember he was with the Dan on Two Against Nature a couple of decades ago. Potter this year was also supremely warm and mellow on Eagle’s Point that found another Methenyian Brad Mehldau appearing on the UK label Edition for the first time. That was in the playing company of Wayne Shorter Quartet greats John Patitucci and Brian Blade.
- Catch up on all the marlbank reviews recently