Tales Of The Hudson - Michael Brecker

May

19

Tales Of The Hudson - Michael Brecker

≡ Category: 1990s, Post Bop, Recommended, Reviews |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING

Rating:

If Tales Of The Hudson was your first exposure to Michael Brecker, you might be excused for being impressed.

At the time of the recording, Brecker was already one of the tenor saxophone’s finest technicians. And look at the musicians he has with him! Pianist McCoy Tyner was a key component of Coltrane’s famous quartet and then proceeded to put out a slew of groundbreaking recordings for Blue Note and Milestone. By 1996, Pat Metheny had long since entered the pantheon of the greatest guitarists ever to play the instrument. Then there was the awesome rhythm team of bassist Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette on drums. The great percussionist Don Alias is on a couple of tracks. Brecker’s regular pianist Joey Calderazzo rounds out the group, and manages not to embarrass himself in such august company.

As was standard practice for Brecker at this time, he penned some of the tunes, but includes contributions from other composers, in this case Don Grolnick, Pat Metheny, and Joey Calderazzo.

The first surprise is how weak this batch of tunes is in comparison to Brecker’s first three releases as a leader, the self-titled Michael Brecker, Don’t Try This At Home, and even Now You See It…Now You Don’t.

Take the lachrymose theme from Beau Rivage, for example. It seems like Brecker was getting inspiration from the theme of the long running sitcom Cheers. This brings out the worst in everybody. Pat Metheny indulges in his most folksy phrasing with a nauseating amount of slurs. Brecker wasn’t old enough to come off like an old fart with too many beers in him reminiscing about the old days, but he does a pretty good imitation here.

Song For Bilbao exhibits Pat Metheny’s uglier instincts as a composer, too. This one is an anthemic tribute, with a canned sense of drama. Even worse, Metheny drags out his guitar synthesizer for a woozy solo.

At this point in his carreer, Brecker was still under the influence of his tour with Paul Simon, so we get the 12/8 African Skies, with it’s boringly reductive melody.

Joey Calderazzo does no better with Midnight Voyage, a dull, repetitive swing tune with bluesy affectations.

Brecker does his best to bring a twist to his usual ballad ideas in Naked Soul, but it’s a transparent ruse. There’s nothing new here.

Grolnick contributes the bland Willie T.

By far the best tunes are the opener, Slings And Arrows, and the closer, Cabin Fever, both by Brecker.

Slings and Arrows is jaunty, memorable and a sturdy vehicle for improvisation. There is a nifty rhythmic ostinato at the end of the tune that allows drummer Jack DeJohnnette to take a polyrhythmic solo. I love when composers do that. Metheny also kills on this one. His solo is chock full of ideas, but still of a model of concision and taste. Brecker is fluent in his solo spot, but there is a problem with his playing, which will pervade the entire date. I wouldn’t be so reckless as to claim that I knew which phrase was coming next, but I will say that Brecker’s improvisational strategies were becoming awfully familiar. The problem is that Brecker was hitting the ceiling against his own talent. His trick bag may have been big enough for three or four saxophonists, but the fact remains that he was still working through the same batch of licks, over and over again, and the strain was starting to show.

Cabin Fever is a barnburner, the perfect way to close out an album. Michael Brecker writes an unpredictable stop and start head, taken tutti by Brecker and Metheny, with Jack DeJohnette tearing it up in the background. The rhythm section burns with an intense 4/4 while Brecker digs into his trademark bebop phrases.

Disappointingly, McCoy Tyner isn’t particularly strong on the tunes where he is featured, Song For Bilbao and African Skies. In my opinion, Brecker and Tyner waited too long to get together. Tyner’s days of being unstoppable behind the keyboard were at least fifteen years behind him. Mind you, he makes most youngsters look asleep, but he’s just not a monster anymore. His solos are warm and good natured, but I miss his fire.

So, given what I’ve had to say, why am I recommending Tales Of The Hudson at all? Well, these are a darn fine bunch of musicians, for one thing. It’s true that Tyner isn’t at the peak of his ability, Metheny is a little self-indulgent at times, and Brecker strains at the limits of his talent, but Tales of The Hudson still beats the heck out of what most musicians can manage. No such qualifiers are necessary for the rhythm section of Jack DeJohnette and Dave Holland. These guys are on fire.

So, with Tales Of The Hudson, what you get is high level workaday post bop, with more perspiration than inspiration.