Geof Bradfield Quintet - Our Roots

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2015
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 61:17
Size: 140,8 MB
Art: Front

(6:40)  1. Adam in the Garden
(6:39)  2. Clinton Hill
(3:42)  3. Yellow Gal
(3:10)  4. Black Girl
(4:16)  5. Meshell
(6:27)  6. Before This Time Another Year
(0:18)  7. Lead Belly
(6:57)  8. Dick's Holler
(7:02)  9. Mbira Song
(4:35) 10. Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground
(7:09) 11. Motherless Children
(4:15) 12. Take This Hammer

Discussing "roots" in the context of jazz, a good starting point is the Mississippi delta, down in New Orleans, where the music of trumpeters King Oliver and Louis Armstrong grew strong. And then there's the rich earth of the delta in north western Mississippi, up near Clarksdale, where the blues grew and blossomed. The roots from both these areas were, of course, transplanted from Africa. Chicago-based saxophonist Geof Bradfield follows up his marvelous Melba! (Origin Records, 2013) with Our Roots, drawing his inspiration from saxophonist Clifford Jordan's These Are My Roots: the Music of Lead Belly (Atlantic Records, 1965), a celebration of the music of blues man Huddie Ledbetter, taking the raw folk and blues stylings and turning it into a very legitimate and inspiring jazz outing. It was Geof Bradfield's self-imposed job, with his Our Roots, to bring a new perspective to an album he had long loved. 

On Melba!, an examination of the sounds from trombonist arranger Melba Liston, pianist Randy Weston's arranger of choice for a good chunk of his career, Bradfield used a three horn front line with two chording instruments, piano and guitar, to explore the African-tinted textures of Liston's artistry. With Our Roots, he leaves the chords out, going with the three horns, bass and drums, a line-up that loosens things up and offers a purity and simplicity that fits Lead Belly's music well.  This isn't a note for note or song for song copy of Jordan's album. That 1965 outing was all Lead Belly. For Our Roots the saxophonist includes four of the Lead Belly tunes from the Clifford Jordan disc, throws in three of his originals in the spirit of Ledbetter's folk/blues, adds a couple of Texas blues man Willie Dixon's songs, and just for the hell of it (and they fit so well), a couple of Georgia Sea Island ring shouts. This is music that says America. Spirited horn work, a killer bass drum team. There are times this sounds like a Randy Weston set, pared down to its essentials. Some of Melba Liston may have soaked into Bradfield's DNA. And the sax man at times has the fierce rawness of Dewey Redman or Pharoah Sanders, two of the tenorists who contributed so brilliantly to Weston's Melba Liston-arranged masterpiece, Spirits of Our Ancestors (Antilles Records, 1992). These are proud sounds, sometimes raucous and rubbery, spiritual, occasionally brash, and consistently brimming with joy.~ Dan McClenaghan https://www.allaboutjazz.com/our-roots-geof-bradfield-origin-records-review-by-dan-mcclenaghan.php

Personnel: Geof Bradfield: tenor saxophone; Marquis Hill: trumpet; Joel Adams: trombone; Clark Sommers: bass; Dana Hall: drums.

Our Roots

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Geof Bradfield - Birdhoused

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2017
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 57:34
Size: 132,8 MB
Art: Front

(7:14)  1. The Other Side of Town
(7:10)  2. Constellation
(3:32)  3. Sonatina
(7:50)  4. Nephila
(6:14)  5. Solid Jackson
(1:46)  6. Bass Solo
(9:46)  7. Fearful Symmetry
(5:53)  8. Birdhoused
(8:05)  9. Laconia

A horn-fest? That was the initial impression of saxophonist Geof Bradfield's Birdhoused, a set featuring a quintet with no chording instrument and  four horn front line in a live set at the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge. While Bradfield's Melba (Origin Records, 2013) paid tribute to the under-sung trombonist/composer/arranger Melba Liston; and his Roots (Origin Records, 2015) explored the sounds of Leadbelly, Blind Willie Johnson and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, Birdhoused expands the horizons, delving into the disparate sounds of Chicago soul songster Curtis Mayfield,  bop pioneer Charlie Parker,  and classical Hungarian composer Gyorgi Ligeti, along with five Bradfield originals, with one tune from the quintet's bassist, Clark Sommers, shuffled in.  So: tenor sax,alto sax, trombone and  trumpet makes for a horn fest; except that would be shortchanging the drive train, bassist Clark Sommers and drummer Dana Hall, who provide a high horsepower propulsion both instruments just bit up in the mix, which is a good thing. Opening with Curtis Mayfield's "The Other Side Of Town," the group proves itself a freewheeling, loose limbed outfit, full of spontaneity and intricate interplay, with solos often torrid all around, bringing another Bird to mind: Little Bird, Ornette Coleman, around the time of Science Fiction (Columbia Records, 1971), when the free jazz alto sax man used in his bands multiple hornmen of the adventurous variety. "Constellation," an elastic take on Charlie Parker's tune, rides in the same vein with a spirited sound, while Ligeti's "Sonatina" mellows things down to solemn mood. 

After the covers, the set settles into what could be called the Bradfield Suite. Compositionally, the rest of the album comes from the leader with a brief bass solo tune from Sommers slipped in. Starting with Bradfield's pensive "Nephila,"  rumbling through a turbulent "Solid Jackson," slinking along on "Fearful Symmetry," strutting through "Birdhoused," and wrapping things up with "Laconia," a bright-hued nod to Bradfield's fellow Chicago-an, saxophonist Clifford Jordan, whose middle name happened to be "Laconia." ~ Dan McClenaghan https://www.allaboutjazz.com/birdhoused-geof-bradfield-cellar-live-review-by-dan-mcclenaghan.php

Personnel: Geof Bradfield: tenor saxophone; Marquis Hill: trumpet; Joel Adams: trombone; Nick Mazzarrella: alto saxophone; Clark Sommers: acoustic bass; Dana Hall: drums, percussion.

Birdhoused

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