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2007-01-12
12:30AM
| MAKE RESERVATION |
| BAR |
TABLE |
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$8.00 |
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“Some of the freshest, most compelling, and most soulful music I have heard recently. Bob is an amazing musician, with something very exciting and original to say.”
— Joshua Redman, saxophonist |
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FEATURING:
Bob Reynolds, saxophone
Aaron Goldberg, piano
Mark Kelley, bass
Obed Calvaire, drums
+ special guests |
Bob Reynolds was born in Morristown, New Jersey, and raised in New York and Florida. He is an honors graduate of the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Jacksonville, Florida, and the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied with George Garzone and Hal Crook. While still in college, he performed at New York's Blue Note Jazz Club, led his quartet in a featured performance at the Monterey Jazz Festival, toured Europe and Japan, and performed at The Kennedy Center.
Reynolds has received many awards including Berklee's prestigious Billboard Endowed Scholarship for Outstanding Academic and Musical Achievement, and he is a three-time winner of ASCAP's Young Jazz Composer Award. In 2000 he graduated summa cum laude from Berklee and relocated to New York City. Reynolds has since performed and/or recorded with a variety of notable jazz artists, including Brian Blade, Aaron Goldberg, Gregory Hutchinson, and Tom Harrell. He is currently performing as a leader and sideman in local clubs, and working with singer-songwriters Jonah Smith and Nellie McKay.
The sheer quality of so much of the music performed by (relatively) unknown up-and-coming musicians is gratifying, for obvious reasons, but it can also be troubling. It is difficult to escape the realization that too many of these musicians will ultimately fail to get the attention they deserve.
How nice it is, then, to hear Bob Reynolds, a gifted young saxophonist and composer whose record Can't Wait For Perfect is already garnering raves from no less than the likes of Joshua Redman and Michael Brecker. The ten compositions on this release become firmly lodged in one's noggin after only a few listens, demonstrating why Reynolds is a three-time winner of ASCAP's Young Jazz Composer Award. The performances by Reynolds and his excellent group, featuring pianist Aaron Goldberg, bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Eric Harland, are utterly assured, whether locked into a deep groove or nimbly dancing around a tricky figure in shifting meters.
The tunes emphasize two major aspects of Reynolds' sound. The first is his way with a groove, epitomized by the fantastic title track, which sounds something like the classic Cannonball Adderley quintet with Joe Zawinul as remixed by Radiohead. Also irresistible is “Last Minute (Late Again),” a funky workout driven along by Rogers' insistent bass figures that perfectly conjures up a feeling of dashing along bustling city streets. “Playing other people's music is like being an actor,” says Reynolds, “you're helping articulate a director's vision. But writing my own music is like being the director, having control over the whole sonic landscape; fully expressing my own vision.”
The second batch of tunes demonstrate that Reynolds can write and play rhythmically and harmonically complex modern jazz that swings fiercely. Tops here is “First Steps,” a knotty melody over shifting meters that benefits from the strong contribution of guest guitarist Mike Moreno. Also of note is lead-off track “Common Ground,” with a great solo by Goldberg that climaxes with a flurry of harmonized arpeggios over the unusual but effectively subtle zooms of guest David Soler's pedal steel. “Nine Lives” combines several of Reynolds' strengths, built on a 9/4 meter that somehow manages to feel locked in and fetauring a great straightahead solo, followed by some artfully overdubbed and treated multi-sax figures. Saxophonist Joshua Redman recently performed this tune with his Elastic Band.
Reynolds accomplishes the difficult task of incorporating funk, rock and soul touches without losing the essential swing and driving intensity of jazz. Can't Wait For Perfect should appeal to serious jazzers, as well as listeners who come to the music from a funk or groove angle. Clearly, Bob Reynolds is someone to watch.
by Josha Weiner |
