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Recent Recordings by Area MusiciansBY PIOTR MICHALOWSKI
From Ann Arbor comes the
new release by the Carl Michel Group, (+) [Play
On Records 1002-2].
Leader and guitarist Michel is joined by Gerald Cleaver, Two former Ann Arbor residents
shine on the Eric Roth Trio release Program 16
[RosCo 001, esroth59@hotmail.com].
The recording documents Roebke is also present on
Low Down by the University of Michigan Jazz Ensemble
under the direction of Ellen Rowe [BOPO
42].
There are many fine university jazz bands around, but this one sounds
more like a professional outfit than a college band. I N - T H I S - I S S U E : |
overs
of traditional jazz, as well as anyone who has but a smidgen of musical
taste, will delight in the posthumously issued Doc Cheatham release,
Live at the Windsor Jazz Series 1981 [
Trumpeter
and singer Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, 76 years old at the time,
was brought to Windsor by Hugh Leal, who recorded the concert for his
Parkwood label, which has just been sold to Jazzology. The other musicians
on the date were pianist James Dapogny, drummer Richard "Pistol"
Allen, and Dan Jordan on bass. All three perform with perfect taste, providing
just the right rhythmic and harmonic cushion for Cheatham. Dapogny was
in particularly fine form that day, providing sensitive idiomatic accompaniment
and soloing with wit and imagination. He seems to have had an uncanny
connection with Doc, and the two bring out the best in each other. One
of the highlights of this CD is Dapogny's sweet solo rendition of Fats
Waller's "Honeysuckle Rose." At this point in his life Cheatham
had a specific repertoire of songs that he played at each concert, including
such chestnuts as "Struttin' with some Barbecue," and "Someday
You'll Be Sorry;" he played and sang these tunes over and over again,
but on a good night he always found some new way of interpreting them.
This was one of these great occasions. 
one
long performance in which the leader's composed themes were juxtaposed
with improvised interludes. For the release the music was broken up into
tracks and given names, but the music is enjoyed best at one fifty-minute
sitting. The trio of Dave Rempis, alto and tenor sax, Jason Roebke, bass,
and Eric Roth, drums and percussion achieves a marvelous unity throughout
this long outing. Roth and Roebke, who now live in Chicago, attended the
University of Michigan and are well known locally; Rempis is best known
as a member of the Vandermark 5. A trio of sax, bass, and drums needs
to do well to hold one's attention for almost an hour, but this one does
the job. The balance between composition and improvisation provides reference
points that assure that the music does not wander, and the skill and imagination
of the instrumentalists do the rest. Rempis has a fine technique and can
play with a broad palate of sounds on his saxophones. Roebke holds the
proceedings together with imaginative melodic playing, and the leader
is a sensitive percussionist who joins in as an equal third partner and
not simply as an accompanist. Trios, duets and solos intermingle; the
moods and tempos shift, providing an engaging variety of sounds bound
logically together. The music references sixties "free jazz"
as well as more contemporary movements, but is refreshingly passionate
and original. The musicians know and respect the tradition, but are more
interested in the present and the future. 