This Chair is Broken [6:33] *
Winds of Change [7:40]
Pretty Self-Explanatory [8:25] *
Billie’s Bounce [5:11]
Alone Now [6:36]
The Woods [6:27] *
Lucid Dream [7:23]
Don’t Give Up [7:09] *
April Rain [4:36] **
Patrick Cornelius (alto and soprano saxophones),
Aaron Parks (piano, fender rhodes), Sean
Conly (bass), Kendrick Scott (drums),
Nick Vagenas (trombone)*, Gretchen Parlato
(vocal) **
This is thoroughly
enjoyable album of modern hard bop,
featuring a number of the most successful
young musicians on the New York jazz
scene.
As is so often the
case with young jazz musicians these
days, Patrick Cornelius has a firm academic
grounding. As a developing musician
he won scholarships from Downbeat Magazine
and The National Merit Corporation.
He went on to study at Boston’s famous
Berklee College of Music. Indeed he
represented the College at important
gigs both in America and Europe and
was able to attend the elite Thelonious
Monk Institute of Jazz, studying with
Clark Terry and Jimmy Heath. He later
undertook postgraduate studies at the
Manhattan School of Music. His playing
reflects many aspects of the modern
jazz tradition. He has, of course, listened
to Charlie Parker – as evidenced by
this CD’s version of Billie’s Bounce.
More directly his approach on tenor
suggests that he has listened to Joe
Henderson a good deal (and perhaps Harold
Land?). His playing on his own ballad,
‘Alone Now’ is outstanding, intense
and yet relaxed.
On this, his solo recording
debut, he is supported by a rhythm section
featuring the remarkable young pianist
Aaron Parks. Another with a firm academic
grounding, including the University
of Washington and the Manhattan School
of Music, Parks was only eighteen when
he joined the Terence Blanchard quintet.
He has a thorough grasp of the idioms
of modern mainstream piano; at times
he floats out beautifully melodic lines,
at other times he plays percussive passages
very much in the tradition of Monk.
He is never less than interesting as
a soloist and is an alertly responsive
accompanist. His harmonic sense is subtle
and he plays with a sophistication and
certainty well beyond his years. Enjoyable
as I found Cornelius’s playing, it has
to be said that Parks comes close to
‘stealing’ his album from him. Sean
Conley brings to his work on double
bass a rhythmic suppleness and a harmonic
awareness that complement (and stimulate)
the front-line soloists, while Kendrick
Scott, another student of Berklee, is
a drummer who listens attentively and
has an ear for exactly relevant detail.
On four tracks the
basic quartet is joined by trombonist
Nick Vagenas, whose inventive contributions
(especially on ‘The Woods’) make one
want to hear more of his work. He and
Cornelius complement one another very
well, notably on ‘Don’t Give Up’. Gretchen
Parlato is a fine vocalist and is a
shame that she is restricted to what
is very much a supporting role on the
one track on which she joins the band.
Enjoyable, clever music,
which does interesting things with what
it inherits from the jazz tradition,
rather than being strikingly innovative.
Well-schooled music, but music played
with feeling, commitment and imagination.
Glyn Pursglove
CD Reviews
