The following review appears in the November 2010 issue of All About Jazz-New York.
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Odean Pope
Fresh Breeze (CIMP)
Odean’s List (In+Out)
Catalyst: The Complete Recordings, Vol. 1 & 2 (Porter)
By David R. Adler
Tenor saxophonist Odean Pope is a Philadelphia institution: a practice buddy of Coltrane’s in his youth, a sideman with Max Roach for 22 years, now a mentor to Philly’s up-and-comers and leader of a nine-horn saxophone choir, along with various small groups. Thanks to a steady flow of recent releases, we’re able to assess not only Pope’s busy present career, but also areas of his overlooked past.
On Fresh Breeze, a new quartet session for CIMP, Pope joins a crop of fellow Philadelphians: altoist Bobby Zankel, a local elder statesman in his own right; bassist Lee Smith, a versatile jazzer and former R&B session hand who happens to be Christian McBride’s father; and drummer Craig McIver, a supple hard-hitter who plays in Zankel’s progressive big band the Warriors of the Wonderful Sound.
It’s a hot, tumultuous ride, although Fresh Breeze sounds something like a good barroom recording — often a pitfall of CIMP’s spartan studio methods. The mix is all drums and too little bass, although we do hear Smith stretch a bit on the ballad “Morning Mist.” Pope and Zankel make an inspired pair, echoing Dewey Redman and Ornette Coleman on the open swing of the title cut, or perhaps Coltrane and Dolphy on the charged “Off If Not.” The uncommon rhythmic feels of “956” and the closing “Trilogy,” however, make this more than a freebop blowing session.
After Fresh Breeze, the improved audio of Odean’s List comes as a jolt. Here Lee Smith cuts right through and locks in with drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts on the vibrant opening sketch “Minor Infractions” and the uptempo “To the Roach.” Smith also takes the floor with a bass intro feature on “Phrygian Love Theme.” The octet setting (five horns and rhythm section) is reminiscent of Pope’s saxophone choir, although the brash trumpets of David Weiss and Terell Stafford push Odean’s List more in the direction of a little big band.
Again, hard-driving modern swing predominates; the album shares something in spirit with Warriors by The Cookers, another David Weiss-related project. But the Loesser/McHugh ballad “Say It Over and Over Again,” a 10-minute duet for tenor and bass, brings the temperature down a notch (and contrasts nicely with Azar Lawrence’s quartet version on Mystic Journey). The liner notes are by Archie Shepp, who engagingly brings us back to Philadelphia in the mid-1950s, when Pope was cutting his teeth and playing sessions with Reggie Workman, Lee Morgan and Hassan Ibn Ali, among others.
Jumping ahead to the early ’70s with Catalyst: The Complete Recordings, we hear an altogether different side of Pope. Playing tenor, flute, alto flute and even oboe, Pope sported the de rigueur afro of the day and worked in an exploratory electric vein with Eddie Green on Rhodes, Tyrone Brown on bass and Sherman Ferguson on drums. Catalyst’s many guests included Alphonso Johnson, Anthony Jackson and Billy Hart.
The band’s four Muse albums (Catalyst, Perception, Unity, A Tear and a Smile), recorded between 1972 and 1974, were first reissued in 1999 by the 32 Groove label, overseen by Mocean Worker (DJ Adam Dorn, son of Joel Dorn). Dorn put the matter of the group’s obscurity front and center by giving his two-disc package the title Catalyst: The Funkiest Band You Never Heard.
Indeed, Catalyst should be more widely known. Some of its work stacks up well next to Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi output. Even the fluffier tracks have the virtue of underscoring profound links between electric jazz and the Philadelphia soul sound that was then in full bloom.
The Florida-based Porter label, to its credit, has reissued the Catalyst inventory once again, but the harder-to-find 32 Groove package is still the one to get. It includes interviews with band members, original liner notes by Gary Giddins and other features. The Porter discs are far less informative; for one thing, they neglect to include recording dates.
What all of this material shows is that Odean Pope, with his bold, searching tenor sound, has always remained himself, regardless of time period or prevailing fashion.
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