From the April 2012 issue of The New York City Jazz Record:
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Drawing on material from his superb new Palmetto disc An Attitude for Gratitude, drummer Matt Wilson fronted his Arts and Crafts quartet in an inspired late Saturday set at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola (March 3). Wilson is a funnyman in the finest Gillespie tradition, but watching him harness the talents of trumpeter Terell Stafford, organist/pianist Gary Versace and bassist Martin Wind is a vivid reminder: this is a musician of rigorous intent, full of playfulness and positive energy but also jaw-dropping skill. Stafford and Versace were hand-in-glove from the first choruses of Nat Adderley’s “Little Boy with the Sad Eyes,” an introductory blast of roadhouse organ swing, which was followed by John Scofield’s lilting calypso-ish number “You Bet.” Versace moved to acoustic piano (and Stafford to flugelhorn) for the moody Nelson Cavaquinho ballad “Beija Flor,” a nice moment for the lyrical Wind, who took the first solo. Not content with just two instruments, Versace took up accordion for “Stolen Time,” the most abstract piece of the set, but returned to piano as guest vocalist Kurt Elling began a scathing scat rendition of “Straight, No Chaser.” Midnight had come and gone, the jam session vibe fully took hold, and these players stretched the blues as far as they could. But the same spirit of creativity and effortless connection guided the rehearsed tunes as well. Ornette Coleman’s “Rejoicing” was the cherry on top, a concise and light-speed treat to close the set. (David R. Adler)
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Gearing up for a mid-April double bill at Jazz at Lincoln Center with Toshiko Akiyoshi, Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks brought spark to their weekly gig at Sofia’s Restaurant (March 5). This band’s bag is well known: readings of vintage arrangements from the ’20s through the ’40s, faithful down to the smallest period detail. The music is astounding, and when liberties are taken, Giordano will say so — once he’s done sprinting from the bass to the tuba to the bass saxophone, laying down the zingy two-beat feel that keeps the Sofia’s dance floor full. Inevitably, the Nighthawks capture that age-old tension between pop entertainment and high art, moving from the occasional light waltz or perennial such as “Cheek to Cheek” to more substantial and absorbing fare: Ellington’s “Cotton Club Stomp” and “Old Man Blues,” King Oliver’s “I Must Have It,” the Luis Russell band’s “Singing Pretty Songs,” Jimmie Lunceford’s first-ever recording “Sweet Rhythm” (1930), or John Nesbitt’s pathbreaking arrangement of “Peggy” for McKinney’s Cotton Pickers. Trumpeter Jon-Erik Kellso was the pivotal soloist, but trombonist Jim Fryer and reedists Dan Block, Dan Levinson and Mark Lopeman killed it as well. Clarinet megaphones, celeste, phono-fiddle, a 1912 euphonium, two numbers with 89-year-old guest clarinetist Sol Yaged: this was the real old-school deal, not fruitless nostalgia but genuine scholarship in sound. It’s a discipline that can’t be allowed to fade away. (DA)
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