RUFUS REID AT BMA
By Michael Formanek
Bassists who are also composers and bandleaders are no longer an exception in the jazz world. However, at the time Rufus Reid was playing his first professional gigs with saxophone virtuoso Eddie Harris in the early 1970s, they were few and far between. In those years, most bassists, other than Charles Mingus, were part of the rhythm section and worked as sidemen for other bandleaders who played saxophone, trumpet, piano, or almost any other instrument. Over the past twenty to thirty years there have been many significant changes in this imbalance of musical influence, and seeing a band with a bassist as the primary composer and leader is a much more common occurrence. Fortunately for us, Rufus Reid made that transition to bassist/composer/bandleader with dignity, authority, and a wonderful sense of imagination and creativity.
These qualities were demonstrated perfectly in his quintet performance at the Baltimore Museum of Art as the Baltimore Chamber Jazz Society opened its 24th season. The group featured some longtime collaborators, including Steve Alee on piano and Duduka Da Fonseca on drums. The front line consisted of trumpet player Freddie Hendrix and the Baltimore-born-and-raised, world-class alto saxophonist and improviser Gary Bartz. I guess it’s time for full disclosure here. I know Reid fairly well and presented him at Peabody, in 2006, as a guest with the Jazz Orchestra. I have also known Da Fonseca for more than thirty years, although we haven’t even seen each other for more than twenty of those, and Bartz and I have crossed paths a few times over the years as well.
The two well-programmed sets of music flowed well from piece to piece. The first set opened with a Steve Alee original entitled “Ebony,” from the Rufus Reid Trio’s 2010 CD Out Front. It served a dual purpose of getting the audience to engage with something relatively familiar while also giving the musicians a chance to get a feel for the room and for each other in the space. There were strong solos all around but Bartz in particular really impressed me throughout the whole evening with his warm tone, lyrical phrasing, and the thoughtful development of his ideas. The first tune was no exception, and for me the other stand-out solo was by Reid himself. Throughout the performance there was a good balance of pieces, including some older ones by Reid, like the sweetly lyrical samba composed for a very warmly regarded relative, entitled “When She Smiles upon Your Face,” as well as pieces composed by and dedicated to recently departed pianists Horace Silver and Mulgrew Miller. Other highlights in the first set were a gorgeous trio version of Tadd Dameron’s “If You Could See Me Now,” and a newer composition by Reid dedicated to a particular sculpture by the artist Elizabeth Catlett called “Glory,” which featured the horns and bass playing a unison melody over nicely swinging ride cymbal by Da Fonseca.
As much as I enjoyed the first set, I found the second half to show much more of the leader’s imagination as well as his broad range of compositional and improvisational skills. The set began with the drummer’s composition, “Manhattan Style,” in which he introduced the tune on the drums; Hendrix followed with a strong opening solo played very much in the spirit of another great trumpeter with the same initials. The set really started to open up after this tune, and there were many beautiful musical moments that resulted from focused and meaningful interplay among all the musicians. The rhythm section in particular demonstrated that they have a history of playing together, which allowed the music to breathe in a very natural way. I felt that these moments, such as one during Reid’s homage to the great pianist Hank Jones in which a richly orchestrated opening theme gave way to a beautiful set of ballad harmonies, were some of the best of the evening. Here Reid showed how important it is to play just the right note, in the right way, with the right tone, at the right time—not an easy task to accomplish, and I can tell you that from experience! The second set closed with a tune by Eddie Harris called “Cryin’ Blues.” This piece brought things back to the mood of the first half but with a looser and more relaxed feeling. Here again there were a lot of strong solos and even some energetic collective improvisation before the band took the theme out at the end.
This was a very good concert played by excellent musicians who balanced creativity and improvisation well, with enough known quantities to keep the audience in the musical loop and enough challenging and evocative material to allow the musicians to fully express themselves. Rufus Reid made this happen by choosing the musicians, by the way he structured his music and his program, and by the way he played the bass, which was really all anyone needed to hear.
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