A Parker Party In the Park

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The New York Sun

The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival is the only major jazz event of the year that I do not look forward to. On one hand, it comes the weekend before Labor Day and thus heralds the end of summer – all too soon my Hawaiian shirts and two-toned shoes go back into the mothballs. On the other, the last weekend of August inevitably seems to be the muggiest of the year. However, for the 13th annual festival, which began on Saturday in Marcus Garvey Park and moved yesterday to Tompkins Square Park, we were blessed with marvelously temperate weather. The music was good too.


There were four bands on Saturday, all from different, out-of-town parts of the world: the Japanese pianist Hiromi Uehara and her trio; the British polyglot Soweto Kinch; Odean Pope and his marvelous nine-saxophone “choir” from Philadelphia; and the Kansas City-based alto saxophone master Bobby Watson. The first two acts employed varying degrees of contemporary pop elements, while the second two acts, straight-ahead all the way, drew the biggest applause from the Harlem crowd.


Hiromi plays what could be called acoustic smooth jazz, using a traditional piano, electric bass, and very heavy, rock-style drumming. Ms. Uehara’s music has an element of genuine improvisation, but everything she did and played on Saturday, from her solos to her facial expressions, seemed calculated to garner a specific response from the audience.


Mr. Kinch’s quintet offers a blend of acoustic jazz with hip-hop style vocals. A lip injury prevented him from playing his saxophone, but he still played piano, sang, and spieled. His rappish lyrics are amusing, although I couldn’t help but echo the sentiments of the middle-aged black woman sitting next to me who said she’d come to the festival to get away from rap.


The good news about Odean Pope is that the saxophonist and his sax choir are about to release a new album (their first since 1993) on Half Note Records. This is a very ambitious 12-piece band, including three alto saxes, four tenors, one baritone, and the leader himself on tenor. The group has a marvelously sonorous sound, which came through in spite of the rather dull festival acoustics. The arrangements by Mr. Pope and the late pianist Eddie Green seamlessly blend big band, bebop, and free-jazz traditions. This is a band we need to hear more of in New York.


The last act, alto saxophonist Bobby Watson, entered to a huge ovation – this is a very hip crowd indeed. Mr. Watson is one of those masters of the horn who just keeps getting better and better. He knows exactly when to be complex, when to be funky and blue, and when to be witty – and keeps swinging through all of it.


Mr. Watson’s Horizon Quartet plays a distinctive blend of happy, boppy music with a subtle touch of Afro-Latin rhythms. The pieces modulate from mood to mood in the most organic way: One number began with a Cuban-esque piano solo by Edward Simon, then grew heavy and boppish when the ensemble entered. Mr. Watson’s own solo started light and translucent – like an alto version of Stan Getz – but gradually built to a peak of emotional and technical intensity. The Kansas-born altoist told the crowd, “It sure is good to be back up in Harlem,” relating how he came here for the first time with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. He then played a lovely ballad treatment of “In A Sentimental Mood,” which quoted “When Lights Are Low,” ran through a little of “Hooray for Hollywood,” then took a lengthy detour through Petula Clark’s “Downtown” – as if to show us Harlemites something of the world beyond 110th Street.


The New York Sun

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