{"id":11038,"date":"2020-01-08T00:29:11","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T00:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=11038"},"modified":"2020-01-08T00:35:08","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T00:35:08","slug":"jerry-bergonzi-quartet-displays-inventive-mastery-of-modern-jazz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=11038","title":{"rendered":"Jerry Bergonzi Quartet displays inventive mastery of modern jazz"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jerry Bergonzi blowing at Bar Centro. Photo by Leiko Napoli<\/em><\/p>\n

An ease of execution arises when musicians achieve full mastery of a creative medium like jazz. The relaxed energy evident in this authority emanated from all four corners of the Jerry Bergonzi Quartet Sunday at Bar Centro. This allowed many outlets of excitement, ideas, passion and soulful style. The most stunning moment came quite soon, when the tenor saxophonist-leader, in effect, cut off the right arm of John Coltrane.<\/p>\n

In that act, he demonstrated mastery of his own voice, laden as it is with influences. I\u2019ll get to my perhaps-startling metaphor shortly.<\/p>\n

The quartet opened with a \u201csimple blues\u201d they titled \u201cLet\u2019s Pretend,\u201d which Bergonzi revealed afterwards as his adaptation of Coltrane\u2019s \u201cVillage Blues.\u201d That tune, from the classic Coltrane Quartet\u2019s first recording in 1961, affirmed Bergonzi\u2019s deep sense of modern jazz tradition. It\u2019s a terse four-note phrase, extended\u00a0slightly. Bergonzi asserted a powerful Trane-ish tight-reed tone that allowed fiery expression through discipline. Yet it helped the band warm up their chops perfectly. Bassist Billy Peterson especially showed he was poised for the show, with elastic, throbbingly-musical dexterity.<\/p>\n

Gear-shift to a fast tempo for the standard \u201cGreen Dolphin Street\u201d but here \u201cde-harmonized\u201d and with other alterations, Bergonzi explained. What happened would\u2019ve stunned Coltrane were he sitting in the crowd. He once famously declared that he would \u201cgive his right arm to play like Stan Getz.\u201d Sure enough, we witnessed — in a few short moments — Bergonzi shift from Coltrane to Getz mode. Not many saxophonists can do this with such swift execution.<\/p>\n

So suddenly his sinuous solo sounded at once like he\u2019d \u201creharmonized\u201d the changes and<\/i><\/em>\u00a0that Getz\u2019s ghost had arisen, with his famous bittersweet lyricism in a tone suggesting fine-hammered, burnished silver. But the solo bore Bergonzi’s own ideas, a flinty sort of cubist reshaping of \u201cDolphin Street.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lest anyone doubt his stylistic latitude, Bergonzi quoted from Getz\u2019s most-famous hit \u201cThe Girl from Ipanema,\u201d in a solo later in the set.<\/p>\n

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Jerry Bergonzi Photo by Leiko Napoli<\/em><\/p>\n

The ensuing tune, Kenny Dorham\u2019s \u201cLa Mesha\u201d(from tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson\u2019s debut Blue Note album.) is ballad-like, with a fairly beguiling melody. Pianist John Campbell gave it a striking pivot point with an acerbic Monkish chord that he stopped and let ring out for several beats. This pinpointed the taking off of the tune\u2019s flight and Campbell\u2019s own wide-ranging facility on the keyboard throughout the set. Bergonzi\u2019s blowing here was as passionate as it was pretty.<\/p>\n

Another sly tune reinvention was punningly presented as \u201cTable Steaks,\u201d as a musical quiz of the source tune. By its end, a few folks figured out it was Benny Goldson\u2019s \u201cStablemates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here and throughout, drummer Adam Nussbaum buoyed the band\u2019s hard-swinging invention with a circular slash, bash, and shimmer attack.<\/p>\n

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Drummer Adam Nussbaum with the Jerry Bergonzi Quartet at Bar Centro Sunday. Photo by Leiko Napoli<\/em><\/p>\n

Two originals offset the reinvented standards: the genial and glowing \u201cLove Thy Neighbor\u201d and as \u201cFreedom From.\u201d \u201cThis was \u00a0originally called \u2018Freedom from Religion\u2019 but too many people took that the wrong way,\u201d Bergonzi explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo now it\u2019s freedom from gluten!\u201d he joked. Here\u2019s where he quoted \u201cIpanema.\u201d The effect was to assert that the veteran Bergonzi was free from, as much as indebted to, his influences. He seems to believe passionately in the jazz tradition without making a religion of it, with faith in its power to generate artistic creativity and, just perhaps, a measure of humanity\u2019s enlightenment and liberation.<\/p>\n

This was one of the biggest events to date for Bar Centro, a \u00a0fast-growing Milwaukee jazz venue.<\/p>\n

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The Jerry Bergonzi Quartet at Bar Centro L-R: Adam Nussbaum (drums), Billy Peterson (bass), Bergonzi (sax), John Campbell (piano). Photo by Leiko Napoli<\/em><\/p>\n

______________<\/p>\n

Culture Currents has been down for quite a while due to technical difficulties. We’re glad we’re back, and that you’re back, Thanks for you patience. — Kevin Lynch\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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  Jerry Bergonzi blowing at Bar Centro. Photo by Leiko Napoli An ease of execution arises when musicians achieve full mastery of a creative medium like jazz. The relaxed energy evident in this authority emanated from all four corners of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-www-kevernacular-com"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hJWE-2S2","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11038"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11050,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11038\/revisions\/11050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}