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 Ed Dix/Bob Brookmeyer FULL CIRCLE CZ Jazz Personnel: Bob Brookmeyer, valve trombone, piano ("I Remember You"); Ed Dix, tenor saxophone; Paul Smith, piano; Bob Bowman, bass; Todd Strait, drums Tracks: Lemon Pie; Weaver of Dreams; Waltz for Floss; It's Me Again; Just Another Pretty Face; You're My Everything; Back to Back; I Remember You Recorded February 19-20, 2002 at Soundtrek Studios, Kansas City, MO; Ron Ubel, engineer. "The wheel is come full circle. I am here." -- Shakespeare, "King Lear" "I had to die to live," Bob Brookmeyer reckoned with JAM in December of 2000. He's come full circle, indeed, through a half century as jazz royalty, including some years marked by frequent dark nights of the soul. So has Ed Dix, though along a distinctly different personal, business, and musical path. Some 56 years after they first met and played together in KC's Warren Durrett Orchestra, Brookmeyer and Dix assembled a quintet in February 2002 to record a testament of enduring and true friendship and musicality. According to Brookmeyer, "Ed played great and we got some good tracks for a CD. Naturally, the music was moderately complex and late, so nobody in the band was overly delighted -- however, the stuff was pretty good and they came around." Come around they did. The resulting album, Full Circle, gets a top grade in jazz geometry. Well-roundedness is nothing new for Brookmeyer. As John Leisenring wrote in a 1996 JAM review of his quartet effort, Paris Suite, "...every work is a complete circle of inventiveness and creation." Then and now, regardless of group size or venue, the balance of composition and improvisation, union of harmony and melody, reflect the energy and versatility of an artist squarely in his prime. In August 2002 alone, he recorded with his New Arts Orchestra in Germany and a trio in Norway. After the swinging "Lemon Pie," a minuet-like "Weaver of Dreams" gives way to "Waltz for Floss," written to honor Dix's wife. "It's Me Again," driven by Todd Strait on drums, picks up the pace before Paul Smith's piano slows the tempo for "Just Another Pretty Face." Dix and Brookmeyer "Back To Back" is the centerpiece of the final three tracks. The rhythm, smoothness, and flow Brookmeyer cites as his major Kansas City influences permeate the album, punctuated by glowing passages when Dix on tenor plays Brookmeyer material. Overall, Brookmeyer's four original compositions shine. Brookmeyer's penchant for challenging established beliefs and institutions belies his classical grounding. High-level contributions as composer, conductor, teacher, pianist, and nonpareil valve trombonist establish him more as icon than iconoclast. Dix may well have joined him in the jazz pantheon had he made a different pilgrimage. Working with Gerry Mulligan, Brookmeyer once told JAM, was "like playing with Bach." If so, Ed Dix and the band prove equal to the task of playing with Beethoven. -- Tom Fredrick Kim Liggett SHADOW OF YOUR SMILE KL 9354 Personnel: Kim Liggett, vocals; Paul Smith, Frank Mantooth, piano; Danny Embrey, Rod Fleeman, Jake Blanton, guitar; Bob Bowman, Craig Akin, bass; Todd Strait, drums; Stan Kessler, trumpet ("Violent Love"); Kim Park, alto saxophone ("They Can't Take That Away From Me") Tracks: Angel Eyes; Dat Dere; Corcovado; Louisiana Sunday Afternoon; Shadow of Your Smile; Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home; For No One; Agua de Beber; No Moon At All; I Thought About You; Violent Love; Don't Explain; They Can't Take That Away From Me Recorded at Soundtrek Studios, Kansas City, MO; Ron Ubel, engineer. The latest diva on the Kansas City scene doesn't hire second string players. On Shadow of Your Smile it shows. With a rich, deep voice, Kim Liggett begins this album with an intimate ballad, "Angel Eyes," accompanied only by piano (Frank Mantooth). The swinging "Dat Dere" is next, arranged by Danny Embrey (as are several of the pieces on the disc) and accompanied by the renowned PBT rhythm section. Paul Smith, Bob Bowman and Todd Strait are the core of so many great Kansas City performances and recordings, and Bowman delivers a stand-out solo on this track. "Corcovado" shifts the gears to a Latin ballad reminiscent of the classic recording by Charlie Byrd and Stan Getz. Featured on guitar to great effect are both Embrey and Rod Fleeman. Liggett's vocal takes a lighter tone here, showing a broader range than the first two tracks would lead the listener to expect. "Louisiana Sunday Afternoon" brings back a medium shuffle-swing, and Rod Fleeman's nylon string solo is in his classic tradition, roundness of tone and completed structure. Bowman gets another chance to shine in the solo light on Johnny Mandel's title track, done here as a medium ballad. "Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home" has Liggett accompanied only by piano and bass, this time Paul Smith paired with Craig Akin. "For No One" touches my musical funnybone: Beatles songs. I tend to find even the most masterful musicians often fail to turn the compositions of Lennon and McCartney into music. But I have to admit this works, with Fleeman and Bowman playing a duet-solo that comes off beautifully. "Agua De Beber" takes us back into the Latin mode, this time at a brighter tempo and with nice solos from Strait and Embrey. "No Moon At All," a swinging piece, pairs Liggett with Bob Bowman only, who proves himself perfectly able to serve as a one-man band. "I Thought About You" brings back the Paul Smith/Craig Akin duo, with Smith providing an inspired solo. "Violent Love" takes things up tempo, and brings in the full house of Fleeman, Jake Blanton, Bowman, Strait and Stan Kessler in a near-Dixie swing feel. "Don't Explain" has Embrey, Smith and Bowman showing great interplay; and finishing up is "They Can't Take That Away From Me," with Kim Park initially playing duo with Liggett, followed by Mantooth back at the piano, then Bowman and Strait. Kim Liggett has a good musical sense, and can handle a broad range of material. This is a well polished debut album, assisted in no small part by a strong supporting cast. Surrounding yourself with the finest musicians in town and recording at a top notch studio with a masterful engineer are important steps in making yourself sound good. -- Rod McBride Bill McKemy DUENDE Personnel: Bill McKemy, double bass; Jeffery Ruckma, accordion, melodica; Brian Baggett, electric & acoustic guitar; Ryan Bennett, drums, cymbals; Sterling Holman, effects ("In the Grip") Tracks: Hymn 4/1; Jacmel; 5 Years Gone; Crooked River; Shard; Phantom Necklace Made Entirely of Human Teeth; Siesta in Bad Tolz; In the Grip (Chicken Milk Mix) Recorded at Wheeler Audio, Kansas City, KS; Korey Ireland, engineer; and Audible Surgery, Kansas City, MO; Sterling Holman, engineer. Bill McKemy's new experimental CD, Duende, is a fully-formed work of art. From its hip three-fold cardboard cover, with artwork by Peregrine Honig and Brady Vest, to its eight tracks of mystical avant guardism, all originals, all art on this album appears to center from that improvisatory, instinctual force the Spanish poet Frederico Garcia Lorca called duende: "...that irresistible effectiveness of instinct....the roots held fast in the primitive slime we all know...from which comes everything that is substantial in art." Thus cites Bob Mielke in the album's liner notes. And unity of vision and action seem to be the hallmarks of this album. As for vision, we get McKemy's master plan of uniting the somewhat asynchronous instrumentation of accordion (or melodica, its sister instrument), electric guitar, double bass, drums, and electronic effects. However, oddly, beautifully enough, it works. As listeners, we are not jarred by this odd coupling, but instead a new pallet is added to the scene. I, for one, have heard nothing quite like it. First, the album begins with a plaintive cry of accordion (or melodica) and bass, slow and easy-moving, followed by an explosive but gradual build, driven by bass and drums. It's energetic and forward-moving, always, something sometimes overlooked in experimental music, as is its temperance. Seldom are we taken over the top here. Continuing in this first track, "Hymn 4/1," we are within an inventive bossa nova-like tune that glides at just under quarter-note equals 60 bpm. However, we get lots of double-time phrasing on the accordion and drums, interweaving, which for me culminates into a pleasant, sidewalk stroll feel. A stroll in Rio, perhaps. At dawn. Brian Baggett's subtle finger-pluck work on acoustic guitar on track three is a blend of flamenco and American classical guitar. It is beauty in simplicity, executed in runs that turn back upon themselves, completing the circle. And this is to accompany accordion, behind which we get a dramatic and roll-filled performance by Ryan Bennett, rolling over toms and cymbals reminiscent in style to Elvin Jones' backing of Coltrane on "Acknowledgment," the first track on A Love Supreme. It is in three words true balladic beauty. This only goes to highlight one of the main strengths of this album, overall, which is interplay. These folks are really with each other here. They're in the pocket. They're calling and responding. They're leaving openings in their own solos so that true dialog, true musical conversation happens, interplay as intermeshed as on one of Keith Jarrett's many trio "standards" albums, where Jarrett, Peacock and DeJohnette turn three voices into one. True beauty for a rhythm section. That is what McKemy and his group have achieved here. -- Kevin Rabas Kim Park ...GENTLY Personnel: Kim Park, saxophones, flute; Joe Cartwright, John R. Burr, Ivan Padua, Frank Mantooth, piano; Bob Bowman, Gerald Spaits, bass; Todd Strait, drums; Karrin Allyson, vocal ("Only Trust Your Heart") Tracks: Portraits; We'll Be Together Again; O Grande Amor; You Go to My Head; Only Trust Your Heart; Lollipops & Roses; Street of Dreams; Trois Ballades Recorded at Soundtrek Studios, Kansas City, MO; Ron Ubel, engineer. On ...Gently, Kim Park's latest venture, the approach has more than a few shadings of Stan Getz, especially on Park's original, "Portraits," a wandering, weaving melody with introspective and supportive playing from Todd Strait on drums and Bob Bowman on bass. "We'll Be Together Again" is a slow, smoldering ballad with tasty textures applied to the background by pianist Joe Cartwright, who is nothing less than masterful when it comes to this kind of touch. "O Grande Amor" enters as a hazy bossa and remains where few musicians are able to sit that far back in the pocket without tipping over. I love the way Strait turns around the beat with displaced accents on brushes. Joe Cartwright's first chorus has gorgeous accompaniment by Bowman, who brings out the full flavor of Cartwright's chops. It is a near perfectly matched quartet. As for Park, he sings over it all with a consistently beautiful tone on flute. "You Go to My Head" features the sweet tenor sound of Park that is a cross between Getz and Paul Desmond in both tone and technique. The tempo is again set in such a way that seems to dare the men to take their time, and pianist Ivan Padua's laid back approach meets the challenge. "Only Trust Your Heart" features a delicate flower of a voice from Karrin Allyson (with tantalizing shades of Nancy Wilson) and with Kim and Karrin dancing to the Carter/Cahn original in a rare 3/4 setting. On "Truth," the CD's second original, Park brings a Ben Webster-like approach to the tenor, leaving lots of open space for the piano as Strait follows smartly and clears a wide path for Cartwright. "Lollipops and Roses" is a 3/4 romp delivered on soprano sax sans drums. Pianist Frank Mantooth's cameo provides the anchor, while Bowman's taut, springy bass bounces all around Park's wafting lines. "Street of Dreams" offers a thoughtful approach in which Park glances at the melody and, without wasting any more time, moves on to embellish it a la late-fifties Miles. "Trois Ballades" closes out the set as a mini-suite. "It Never Entered My Mind," "How Long Has This Been Going On?" and "When Your Lover Has Gone" take the listener on a journey of surprise, discovery and a sense of loss, in three successive motions, and as the sensitive touch of pianist John Burr serves as the centerpiece. With its pensive pace along with uncommon treats in both tunes and talent, ...Gently takes the long and scenic way home. And please note: this CD is available in limited quantity exclusively at Music Exchange, 4200 Broadway. Call 816-931-7560 for more information. -- Wayne Goins Westport Art Ensemble WESTPORT ART ENSEMBLE WAE2731 Personnel: Jake Blanton, guitar; Josh Sclar, tenor & alto saxophones; Gerald Spaits, bass; Todd Strait, drums; Roger Wilder, piano & Fender Rhodes Tracks: Haenehmehr; Dot of Oz; Labyrinth Therapy; I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry; Worlds Past; Lullaby for Naomi; Fer Krazy Kernels; A Theme for This American Life; Almost Hit That Lady; Art Isn't Always Pretty Recorded at BRC Audio Productions, Kansas City, MO; Bill Crain, engineer; tracks 9 & 10 recorded live at the Westport Coffee House Theater, Kansas City, MO; Tom Ptacek, engineer. The large contingent of listeners who have enjoyed the Westport Art Ensemble's live sessions at the Westport Coffee House and the Blue Room will find all of the distinctive elements of the Kansas City-based quintet intact on this their debut recording. There are fresh originals from each bandmember, fine solos and, as always, plenty of thoughtful interplay. Roger Wilder's "Haenehmehr" opens the set as a fast-paced bopper with a Jazz Messengers feel. Josh Sclar states the opening theme and follows with his typical edge. Wilder takes a solo turn before Sclar returns to bring it home. A nice attention-getting opener. Wilder also penned "Labyrinth Therapy," which features his work on the Fender Rhodes. And "Dot of Oz" is a middle-paced waltz by Sclar that has three distinct sections, including a memorable bridge. The only non-original is the Gerald Spaits arrangement of Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." Sclar's tender solo over Jake Blanton's guitar leads to Blanton's solo statement. This cut fits seamlessly among the other originals in this collection. The bossa "Worlds Past" is a Spaits original featuring his own solo on bass in addition to those of Sclar and Blanton. Todd Strait's "Theme For Naomi" is the ballad feature in this set. Wilder's Fender Rhodes solo reminds us of the colors possible from this classic keyboard. "For Krazy Kernels" is a Blanton original that opens at a pace similar to "...Naomi" but quickly moves on to a quick three. Sclar and Spaits take the solo honors here. After a slow introduction, a Latin rhythm is introduced on Sclar's "A Theme For an American Life," the last of the tracks that were recorded in the studio by engineer Bill Crain. Strait sets the groove (with no small help from Spaits and Wilder) that leads to the best interplay on the set, with some blazing dialogue between Sclar and Blanton. The last two cuts were recorded live at the Westport Coffee House Theater by Tom Ptacek. Blanton's "Almost Hit That Lady" again shows the bop side of the band. And the set (and CD) closer "Art Isn't Always Pretty" is the most "out" track of all. After the opening cacophony, Sclar introduces a short theme that sticks until Wilder's electric piano and Strait's rock-steady rhythm offer a reminder of early fusion. Strait emerges with Sclar, who restates his theme before a return to the same cacophony that opened. This is the Westport Art Ensemble at their collaborative best. The pacing of this set is excellent. And each track is strong. The variety of rhythms and solo structures help with the cohesion, and every member of the WAE makes strong solo and compositional statements. This recording is highly recommended, especially to fans of the modern jazz mainstream. -- Roger Atkinson
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