Lightning in a bottle
There are several things of great appeal here – the players, the choice of tunes, the feeling.
It’s incredibly hip to play this way.
Many desire to. Few can match what’s here. It’s like walking and talking with the spirits.
The complexity is in the simplicity, the elemental rigour of it all.
The understanding. The meeting of minds. The alchemy.
A player with a strong Hubbardian pedigree
Sixty three year old drummer Carl Allen hails from Milwaukee in Wisconsin and has been a name to reckon with since the 80s when he was in Freddie Hubbard’s band. But it’s not often he issues an album under his own name. So this is as covetable as a 1959 vintage Château Lafite Rothschild at a fraction of the price.
Philly legend Christian McBride’s ‘A Morning Story’ is one of the tunes
In 1993 Allen delivered up his own first album as a leader entitled Piccadilly Square which had Hubbard as a guest and also included the much missed Roy Hargrove among its personnel.
Later Allen worked with bassist Rodney Whitaker a lot on such records as Get Ready (Mack Avenue, 2007) and served as director of studies at top New York music conservatoire, Julliard.
Christian McBride is the bassist on this incredible album and whose tune ‘A Morning Story’ is here.
That’s a piece that was on McBride’s 1996 Verve album Number Two Express which on that album version that found McBriide playing bass guitar on it had altoist Gary Bartz, Kenny Barron on Fender Rhodes and on drums Jack DeJohnette.
Given the acoustic nature of Tippin’ the effect is very different just from that point of view alone.
Allen has been working with McBride for decades in a range of contexts including significantly McBride’s own band Inside Straight.
McBride was also on the Allen led mid-1990s album Testimonial issued by Atlantic and whose personnel also included Nicholas Payton, Vincent Herring and Cyrus Chestnut. Of their Inside Straight work together we liked 2009’s Kind of Brown most.
When you listen to Allen you think of the best exemplars of modern jazz and it’s a combination of some of the deepest approaches to say Art Blakey a bit, Elvin Jones, Jack DeJohnette and Tony Williams all in the blend by a player who has a great mind for the music and chops to die for.
The Metheny connection
The trio on Tippin’ is completed by Chris Potter, one of the greatest tenorists living. Besides tenor here he plays soprano and bass clarinet on the album.
They came. They saw. They conquered
We were blown away by his playing on the cover of the Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays Offramp (ECM, 1982) classic ‘James’ which was our conduit into the album starting from scratch when the album was being teased before the Yule. Potter is a Methenyian himself having played with the great Missourian on 2012’s Unity Band. McBride too has form with Metheny – check him out on 2008’s Day Trip along with Birdman composer Antonio Sánchez.
But really like all great jazz EVERYTHING goes back to the drums. And so while this is stunning group play you just end up listening to Allen most of the time like a moth to a flame.
‘Inchworm, inchworm measuring the marigolds you and your arithmetic you’ll probably go far’
There’s a strong John Coltrane connection too given the inclusion of 1950s movie musical song Hans Christian Andersen Frank Loesser classic ‘The Inchworm’ magically sung back in the day by Danny Kaye.
Another delight in the A&R-ing is hearing Irving Berlin beauty ‘They Say It’s Wonderful’ which made history as part of the John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman 1963 Impulse album.
And there’s also a strong Kenny Barron connection given the beautiful treatment of Barron’s ‘Song for Abdullah’ which has John Lee on piano and on which McBride bows for extra gravitas and Potter is on gloom tube.
Room for a ”Memphis convention” among the tunes
Be good to yourself, dear reader, Tippin’ is a top tip any day of the week because of all of the above.
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