 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
From Jazz News, 1998... SAXOPHONIST DAVE BERSON HAS A TONE that is unearthly in its beauty when he plays the soprano sax. His sound on flute is angelic. When he plays tenor sax, the world is young again. Berson has the good luck to have THE SOUND. Stan Getz made a career of nurturing, and exploiting, a special sonic signature. Berson would be usefully advised to get his superior beauty further into circulation. In the company of three extraordinary musicians, as here in BAY MOODS, Dave Berson's strengths stand tall and proud. This is music that overcomes the desultory nuances of the term "moods." Seven of the nine compositions/medlies on this disc are Berson compositions and/or arrangements. the opening Vince Guaraldi song, "Cast Your Fate," sets the scene of San Francisco lyric inspiration. Guaraldi, for the bulk of his much too short career, was a San Francisco musician who, throughout the '50s, worked to create a special cultural and musical ambience in this most beautiful of North American cities. Guaraldi's playing with the legendary guitarist Bola Sete, and with the equally legendary vibraphonist Cal Tjader, established a "San Francisco sound' that was beguiling in its melodic adventurousness and its rhythmic groove-making. In BAY MOODS, Berson and his colleagues have caught that spirit of fun and reflective, romping joy. Humor is a strong part of the enterprise here. "Duck Walk," the first half of the initial medley, is marked by frankly accented swing - a childlike sense of boisterous happiness - but the double entendre is inflected by the song's admitted homage to the city's coastal fowl as well as by its unstated homage to drummer Donald Bailey's nickname, "Duck." The paean to Highway 280 "Crepuscule from the Commute," trumps Thelonious Monk's wonderful use of a little-used word that invokes the sunset and its glowering twilight aftermath. The players on this session are quietly profound musicians. Youthful bassist John Wiitala is in the process of becoming one of the essential jazz bass players on the scene today. His tone is full and authoritative. His chops are unadorned by clutter or doodling. Wiitala holds his own on any stage. Keep your ears ready to hear more of his work. He will continue to grow in strength and stature. Pianist Bill Bell - a professor whose student Scott DeVeaux has written a recent book, THE BIRTH OF BEBOP (University of California Press, 1997) - owns a lightness of touch and a harmonic ability of rare command: Bell is a pianist who can mesmerize his listeners. Drummer Donald Bailey was piano great Jimmy Rowles's favorite drummer. Bailey has that unique indefinable ability to drive a band, large or small, with equisite timing and an exact sense of accent. Bailey is never out of the pocket, never over his head, and seldom seems to work up a sweat. And yet no once can drive a group more perfectly to its hippest frenzy than Duck. Berson's quartet owns an unfulfilled responsibility to the most intelligent members of the jazz public to make more albums. Quiet literally, the work needs far more music with this high-spirited nature. BAY MOODS is splendid, a disc that (somehow) gets back into your sound system repeatedly. Funny how that is true of the very best music. You keep going back to it as if it were a good friend, which is precisely what great music is. --Jim Merod Check out the artist's website: http://www.musicbydavidberson.com Track List: 1. Cast Your Fate to the Wind 2. Vista Del Agua 3. Afternoon in Oakland 4. Guardando Bufano 5. Duck Walk/Along the Pacific Flyway 6. Crepuscule from the Commute 7. San Francisco Variations / I Left My Heart in San Francisco 8. Latitude 38 9. Now Comes the Fog Suggested CDs:Other Genres:
|