1. Suddenly It's Spring
2. Careless
3. Last Night When We Were Young
4. I Remember You
5. I'll Take Romance
6. Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
7. Yesterdays
8. Come Rain or Come Shine
9. Watch What Happens
10. Night and Day
Phil Woods - Saxophone
Bill Charlap – Piano
Brian Lynch - Trumpet
Steve Gilmore - Bass
Bill Goodwin - Drums
"Only
connect". E. M. Forster’s famous dictum
is relevant to many areas of the arts - not
least music, where listeners build up their
appreciation by making connections between
various musical styles and different musicians.
This seems particularly true in jazz, where
the individual artist largely fashions the
music. . We compare one performance with another,
one artist with another, and make connections
for ourselves - building up our own complex
idea of what constitutes the music called
"jazz".
These
random (and probably totally irrelevant) thoughts
were prompted by this new disc – and especially
by one track: Watch What Happens. I
first came to realise what a phenomenal musician
Phil Woods is when I heard him playing this
tune on a session led by the tune’s composer,
Michel Legrand. It was on a 1973 LP called
"Live at Jimmy’s" (sadly not available
on CD) and comprising live performances of
several Legrand compositions. Phil Woods really
tore into the tunes, creating marvellously
inventive solos – and it is one of the most
exhilarating sessions I have ever heard. Of
course, I had heard him before but this was
a sort of Damascus road experience, opening
my eyes to the wonder that is Phil Woods.
And
that wonder persists in this new CD, recorded
in January, when Phil was 75 but still playing
beautifully. The idea of an album of tunes
from the Great American Songbook may not arouse
much excitement, especially as this is Phil’s
second album of such material. Indeed, we
have heard so much of that rather overdone
Songbook in recent years that we may be getting
blasé. Yet Phil’s quintet dispels staleness
by choosing an interesting programme of familiar
and lesser-known songs, arranging them imaginatively,
and building some fascinating solos.
The
arrangements – six by Phil Woods and four
by Brian Lynch – have the same sort of subtle
inventiveness as those that Charlie Shavers
made for the John Kirby sextet: simple but
effective. In fact the sleeve-note tells us
that, when the quintet was considering how
to interpret Careless, Phil said "I’m
hearing Kirby". Phil’s solo on this track
has the directness of one of his alto-sax
heroes, Benny Carter, while Brian Lynch’s
muted solo is smoothly melodious, and Bill
Charlap plays with the simplicity of Count
Basie. All three musicians contribute sterling
work throughout the album, adding subtle touches
like those occasional quotations that make
a connection between one tune and another.
Bill Charlap hints at Anything Goes
in Suddenly It’s Spring, and in Yesterdays,
Phil Woods quotes from the Beatles’ Yesterday,
capped by Brian Lynch’s reference to Nature
Boy!
These
three are backed solidly by the long-term
rhythm duo of Gilmore and Goodwin, who have
been playing for Phil Woods since 1974. The
togetherness of the five musicians ensures
cohesion and communication. And Phil Woods’
playing is still wonderful. For instance,
savour his performance of Last Night When
We Were Young, an affecting ballad on
which he is not afraid to employ vibrato to
add to the emotion. Phil may often by classed
as a disciple of Charlie Parker but, like
Cannonball Adderley, he was never content
to imitate his idols but trod his own path,
with nods to Johnny Hodges as well as to Parker
and others. Phil Woods and his quintet prove
here that, however hackneyed it may have become,
there’s life in the American Songbook yet.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
Kind
of Blue KOB 10022
