If saxophonist Awan Rashad hadn’t told me beforehand that the quartet he led at Jazz on Jay Thursday had never before played together in that configuration, I never would have believed it.
The four – Rashad, tenor sax; Tarik Shah, double bass; Ian MacDonald, piano; and Matt Niedbalski, drums – charged up vintage tunes with impressive, happy tightness; sharing fresh ideas quickly from player to player.
The virtue of playing older tunes is that everybody on the bandstand knows them. The cats proved it Thursday by hanging in even when wind blew charts off their stands; MacDonald at one point anchored an elusive sheet with his shoe, while Rashad reached over to secure Shah’s with a clamp.
The hazard of playing older tunes is that everybody in the audience knows them, too – and feels we all know what to expect. Not a problem for this creative crew.
Rashad’s musical heart beats with 50s bebop and its 60s successor, hard-bop. They refreshed these familiar forms in waves of friendly immediacy. Shah and MacDonald shared a warmly tight connection in echoing riffs back and forth, while Rashad did this with all his band-mates.
“Time to Smile” lived up to its happy title in a mid-tempo swing excursion to start the set, everybody soloing hot but Niedbalski, but he later got his shot in riff-swapping with each band-mate in turn.
Rashad eased into “Lullabye of Birdland” through an unaccompanied intro, then did the same in “Everything Happens to Me.” Each cooked up its own flavor: “Lullabye” jaunty and “Happens” gentle, with Niedbalski understating the beat, brush in one hand, the head of a mallet in the other, while Rashad, who’d started it mellow and slow, took it for a faster ride to close.
Benny Golson’s “Shades of Stein” brought an upbeat feel, framing Niedbalski’s drum solo.
In “Around the Corner,” Rashad led everybody on a similar path to “Lullabye” – a spirited start, then explosive rapid runs to bring it home.
He promised to slow things down in “It’s Alright With Me.” Well, not so much, as Shah in particular didn’t get the memo and pushed things hard, faster than “Corner.” Nonetheless, Rashad quipped about this “nice slow tune.” MacDonald romped here, too, jumping octaves, charging hot into minor key mutations, then pumping fat chords.
The guys really dug into the happy tunes Thursday, Shah’s walking bass positively swaggering in “On The Sunny Side of the Street,” he and Niedbalski swinging it from the bottom. The rhythm section also shone bright in “Jim Dunn’s Dilemma,” a peppy bop-and-go rip.
When Rashad dedicated “Big Foot” to Shah, the bemused bassist pointedly looked down at his feet. At first it flowed mellow, but then flexed harder as if the guys took this Charlie Parker classic to the gym.
To give fun, a band first has to have fun itself, and these guys did.
Like trumpeter Bria Skonberg (returning to A Place for Jazz Nov. 1), Rashad served up a survey of his instrument’s capabilities and history, though he was never obvious and seldom pushed its range down to low whomps or high cries. He delivered some Johnny Hodges mellowness, some rapid-fire Sonny Rollins arpeggio runs and tastes here and there of John Coltrane – always respecting the antiques he revived from former times.
Early on, he acknowledged how seldom he emerges from his “cave,” but said he’s always happy to find folks waiting to hear him play when he does. And no wonder.
The Songs
Time to Smile (Freddie Redd)
Lullabye of Birdland (George Shearing)
Everything Happens to Me (Tom Adair and Matt Dennis)
Shade of Stein (Benny Golson)
Around the Corner (Barry Harris)
It’s Alright With Me (Cole Porter)
On the Sunny Side of the Street (Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields – though some say Fats Waller wrote it)
Jim Dunn’s Dilemma (Freddie Redd)
Big Foot (Charlie Parker)
Hoke's Jukebox 