Rich Perry - Nocturne

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 61:28
Size: 141,0 MB
Art: Front

(7:24)  1. Autumn Nocturne
(7:35)  2. Cherokee
(8:07)  3. Never Let Me Go
(8:54)  4. Old Folks
(8:48)  5. I've Never Been In Love Before
(6:37)  6. My Little Suede Shoes
(6:44)  7. You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To
(7:17)  8. Lotus Blossom

When, if ever, does loyalty to a record label become a liability for a musician? I posed the question in rhetorical fashion in a recent review of the latest release by saxophonist Ari Ambrose for Steeplechase. It’s a query that’s even more apposite in the context of labelmate Rich Perry. Nocturne marks Perry’s 21st disc for the Danish imprint, and curiously enough, like Ambrose’s album, it’s the tenorist’s first in the configuration of a conventional jazz quartet in which a guitar replaces a piano. Unlike the Ambrose disc, all of the tracks on Nocturne are standards dating from bebop and backward, and one of the participants, drummer Jeff Hirshfield, has been in Perry’s professional orbit since the saxophonist’s debut date way back in 1993. So the question stands: What can Perry possibly say that he probably hasn’t said in some shape or form before given the consistent circumstances of his output over several decades? The answer is a subjective one, but to these ears Perry’s situation exemplifies one of the fundamental advantages of jazz as a means of creative expression. In the right hands, even the most threadbare standard can be made to hold emotional and artistic weight. And nearly all of Perry’s picks for the session have seen their share of excessive use over the years.

“Cherokee,” which falls second in the program pecking order, has recorded renderings numbering well into the quadruple digits. Perry approaches it with little fanfare and not a hint of trepidation, decelerating the tempo from a customary bop gallop to lustrous crawl, his tone corpulent but his phrasing still airy and agile. Bassist John Hebert is especially helpful in this setting, planting a fat, strutting line in pace with the gentle glide of Hirschfield’s swishing brushes. Guitarist Nate Radley comps in the cracks, and Perry’s winding, aerated line receives just the right degree of support for the duration. The other tracks advance at speeds ranging from medium to gradual with the exceptions coming with a variable speed, behind the beat “Never Let Me Go” and the closing version of Kenny Dorham’s “Lotus Blossom.” These pieces almost sound like émigrés from another album, with Perry hinting at free playing in places and improvising with a vigor unmatched elsewhere in the set. While my preference would be for more blowing of this sort, it’s hard to fault the path of lesser resistance Perry and his colleagues choose instead. This is standards-centered jazz of the best sort. It’s the kind that mines the beauty in the melodies without being beholden to this history of their forms and it answers the aforementioned question of potential artistic stasis to my mind without equivocation. ~ Derek Taylor http://dustedmagazine.tumblr.com/post/76439049084/rich-perry-nocturne-steeplechase

Personnel:  Rich Perry, tenor sax;  Nate Radley, guitar;  John Hebert, bass;  Jeff Hirshfield, drums

Nocturne

---