As usual the Chicago Jazz Festival is recognizing a few big-name anniversaries–40 years of the AACM, 70 of Down Beat magazine, and what would’ve been Charlie Parker’s 85th birthday–and celebrating a handful of jazz greats both living and dead. (This year it’s Roy Haynes and Eddie Johnson in the former category and Tony Williams, Charlie Weeks, King Oliver, Vandy Harris, and Cannonball Adderley in the latter.) The Jazz Institute of Chicago, which books the fest, apparently sees little point in tinkering with its formula to establish an overarching theme, so we get the customary breakdown once again–a healthy dose of topflight mainstream jazz, a bit of traditional stuff, and a few token avant-garde acts.
R A few years back Puerto Rican pianist Eddie Palmieri re-formed his classic salsa band, La Perfecta, which in the 60s transformed the genre’s typical three-minute dance tunes into extended blowing sessions, adding jagged rhythms and avant-garde harmonies to the deeply soulful vocals, irresistible percolating percussion, and punchy contrapuntal arrangements that make salsa so thrilling and sensual. But Palmieri also loves jazz–he’s been coming back to it for decades–and earlier this year, after two terrific albums with the new La Perfecta lineup, he released Listen Here! (Concord Picante), a hard-core Latin-jazz set that mixes originals and, for the first time in the pianist’s career, standards (including tunes by Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, and Gil Fuller and Chano Pozo). Palmieri has enlisted a crowd of hotshot guests–Michael Brecker, John Scofield, Nicholas Payton, Regina Carter–but what really makes the disc special are the drum-tight arrangements (most by trombonist Doug Beavers of La Perfecta) and the handful of intimate small-group numbers, among them a quicksilver duet with bassist John Benitez (“Tema para Eydie”) and a knotty trio with Scofield and Benitez (“La gitana”). At this show Palmieri will duet with trumpeter Brian Lynch, also a regular member of La Perfecta, which all but guarantees an emphasis on the pianist’s prodigious skills as an improviser. Palmieri will also play at 5 PM on Sunday with La Perfecta as part of the annual Fiesta Boricua, on Division between Western and Mozart, and at noon on Thursday, September 1, his medallion on the Paseo Boricua Walk of Fame will be unveiled at 2733 W. Division. PM
Friday 2
1:10 PM
Though working musicians form the nucleus of any good jazz scene, they’re often the least acknowledged members of the community. Chicago fixture Larry Gray has been the bassist of choice at the Jazz Showcase for decades, and there’s a reason for that: he’s dependable. With a solid time feel, a good sense of harmony, and a decent sound, he’s got what any visiting bigwig might want in an accompanist. But Gray’s also broken out on his own, surprising folks who know him as a sideman by recording Gravity, a self-released solo outing–and this autumn he plans to cut a trio CD under his own name with the group he’s bringing to the fest, which features pianist Jim Trompeter and secret-weapon drummer Dana Hall. JC
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Students of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians School
