ALL THAT JAZZ #4 [FOOS ON FRIEND TED NASH]

Straight-ahead jazz is a fusion music in many respects.   The shuffle beat - that irresistible momentum that causes the music to swing - derives from the combination of African rhythms and the beat of American marching bands.  Harmonic structures from European concert music provide the underpinning for improvisations...except where Eastern-influenced modes are the base.  Melodic statements, even when based on Tin Pan Alley pop, are tinged with a soulfulness that comes straight from the blues and church hymns.   But when "jazz fusion" or "fusion" music is spoken of, the reference is not usually to plain old jazz, but to some form of "jazz and...."  In the 1950's, Third Stream music combined jazz and classical orchestral elements, such as in the Miles Davis and Gil Evans classic "Sketches of Spain."  In the 60's and 70's, fusion came to mean the mix of jazz and rock, again with Miles in the forefront, but with a lot of painful examples as well.  Since then, fusion has mostly meant various forms of World Music, where jazz (well, at least some jazz instrumentation or some level of improvisation) is melded with a particular style of music from South America, Europe or Asia.   

 

Ted Nash, one of the great reed players in jazz and a long-time stalwart member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and his band Odeon take the concept of fusion to another level because their music cannot be sufficiently defined by the simple description "jazz and..."   Odeon consists of a non-standard lineup of reeds (Nash on tenor sax, clarinet and bass clarinet), accordion (William Schimmel), violin (Miri Ben Ari), trombone and tuba (Wycliffe Gordon), and drums (Jeff Ballard and Matt Wilson).  The amazing number of musical styles and influences that can be identified in the performances of this small ensemble expands proportionally with the depth and breadth of the listener's frame of reference.   Jazz critic Gary Giddins put it better than I can when he described Odeon's music as a "Rorscach: tango, klezmer, second-line rhythms, impressionism, Ellington voicings, marches, the Near East, the Middle East, the Far East, and representing the West, country music and jazz itself."  What this description doesn't tell you, however, is that in any given piece, many of these styles and influences can come flying/wafting/marching/strolling/dancing/laughing past you at a dizzying and audacious variety of speeds and angles.

 

There are so many wonderful moments throughout this CD...and I'm already over my self-imposed 2 paragraph limit...that I will only mention a few of the high(est)lights.  "Premiere Rhapsodie" is a brilliant deconstruction/reconstruction of a DeBussy competition piece for clarinet, here cramming into less than 9 minutes mysterious bass clarinet lines, a soulful muted trombone, a rollicking tenor solo over a tuba backbeat, a gypsy violin/accordion episode, some conservatory-worthy clarinet playing, and a circus-like theme that makes you think the elephants and clowns are just around the corner.  The title cut, "Sidewalk Meeting" starts with a virtuoso trombone cadenza with Gordon unleashing a rambunctious display of shouts, growls, belly laughs and romantic asides before being greeted by the counterpoint of Ted's bass clarinet as they slip into the gospel-ish main theme.  The violin and accordion then join and the piece moves like a choir through a peaceful conclusion that reminded me a bit of Thelonious Monk's "Crepescule with Nellie."   And, of course, what klezmer-gypsy-tango album wouldn't be complete without a real Monk tune, in this case "Bemsha Swing."   Here Nash stretches out on tenor, with wonderful support from Gordon (on tuba) and Ballard on the closest thing you'll find to straight-ahead jazz on this inspired and fascinating CD.

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