Clattering percussion, skittering sax lines and hyperactive synth playing combine to create an uplifting end to a set which transports the listener back to a golden age of modern jazz.
Available from Bandcamp
Jason Miles (synthesisers); Teruo Nakamura (electric and acoustic bass); Mark Gray (keyboards); Bill Washer (guitar); Gerry Niewood (sax and flute); Chuggy Carter (percussion); Brian Brake (drums)
Recorded 20 January 1981 7th Ave South club, NYC
There are times when I wish I could step into a music time machine and be transported back to a certain place and moment. One location on my list would be New York City in 1981. It was a great time to be a jazz musician and a jazz fan. There was a vibrant jazz scene with a new generation of musicians beginning to make their mark. Miles Davis – a resident of New York – was playing again after an absence of five years. There was a bustling loft scene, which saw groups of musicians meet-up, jam and exchange ideas. The studio session scene was busy; the jazz venues were buzzing, and record company jazz budgets were generous. How times change.
This album gives listeners a slice of that time. One of the most popular New York jazz clubs was Seventh Avenue South, located in Greenwich Village, and founded by Randy and Michael Brecker. It opened in 1977 and closed its doors ten years later. A Who’s Who of jazz musicians played there including, Mike Stern, John Scofield, Carla Bley, David Sanborn, Marcus Miller, Wynton Marsalis, Hiram Bullock, Steps Ahead, Jaco Pastorius’s Word of Mouth big band, and The Gil Evans Orchestra. If you search online, you’ll find a cracking photo of Miles Davis and Chaka Khan at the club, watching a band that included Japanese guitarist Kazumi Watanabe, Michael Brecker and Marcus Miller.
Also playing there was The Rising Sun Band, a septet that included Jason Miles on synthesiser. Four years later, Miles would become well-known for the pivotal role he played in crafting a series of indelible electronic soundscapes for Marcus Miller on Miles Davis’s Tutu album. But in 1981, Jason Miles was still rising on the New York jazz scene, although he had recorded his first album as leader two years earlier, Cozmopolitan, which included Michael Brecker and Marcus Miller.
The rest of The Rising Sun band comprised of Japanese bassist Teruo Nakamura, who moved to New York when he was 22 and had played with Roy Haynes, Steve Grossman and Lenny White. Keyboardist Mark Gray’s resume includes Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, Freddie Hubbard, Hubert Laws and The Brecker Brothers. Saxophonist Gerry Niewood played with Gerry Mulligan, Chuck Mangione and Jim Hall. He died in an air crash in 2009, aged 66. Guitarist Bill Washer’s cv includes Elvin Jones, Joe Henderson, Steve Grossman and Stevie Wonder. Percussionist Leslie ‘Chugger’ Carter has worked with Donny Hathaway and Patti Labelle. Drummer Brian Blake has played with Earl Klugh, Bob Mintzer and Lonnie Smith. In other words, this was a band of musicians with impressive chops.
A word about this recording. The cover includes the word ‘bootleg,’ which used to mean an unofficial recording not authorised by the artist (who had no control over the contents and received no money from the release). But the advent of releases such as Sony’s Miles Davis Bootleg Series has given the word another meaning. It means a recording not sourced from a professional multitrack recorder. In Miles Davis’s case that often means radio broadcasts, but in this instance, the recording was made by Jason Miles on the night.
As a result, the sound quality is not as high as that from a professional studio desk, and at times, audience chatter can be heard. But thanks to some smart digital post-production work, Miles has done great job in boosting the sound quality, and at the same time, capturing the ambience in the room – close your eyes, and you could be sitting at a table next to the stage.
Tracks such as the opener ‘Mr and Mrs Funk,’ ‘Avenida Funk,’ and ‘A Day In The Life of a Frog’ offer up heavy grooves, laced with burbling synth lines, and a big slice of funk. On ‘Mr and Mrs Funk,’ Gerry Niewood’s energetic tenor sax playing brings to mind Michael Brecker. Jason Miles plays a long, rising synth solo that reaches almost bat-frequencies at its climax. ‘Snap Crackle,’ is a bright breezy number with Nakamura’s slap bass lines a sharp sonic contrast to Niewood’s light, airy flute sound.
‘Wiggle Worm’ is where jazz meets the sound of Parliament/Funkadelic, and includes an extended synth solo, and a stirring percussion breakdown between Chuggy Carter and Brian Brake. There’s plenty of jazz-funk on offer in this set, but the longest number – the near-18-minute ‘Steppin With The Lord’ is a ballad, with Mark Gray’s rippling chords on Fender Rhodes the bedrock for a tune that has long solo spots for most band members, including, guitarist Bill Washer, whose expressive playing makes one wish he had been highlighted a little more.
The closer, ‘Rising Sun’ is a spirited number with the band playing full-on Latin-funk. Clattering percussion, skittering sax lines and hyperactive synth playing combine to create an uplifting end to a set which transports the listener back to a golden age of modern jazz.
