PAGANOVA / Burn It Forward. Deep in My Soul. Guess Whose Blues. Just the Other Day. Napoli (Michael Pagán). Eiderdown (Steve Swallow). Where Do We Go from Here? (Kenny Wheeler). Gaviota (Clare Fischer)* / Michael Herrera, David Chael, a-sax/s-sax/t-sax; Michael Pagán, pno/*el-pno; Louie Pagán, bs/el-bs; Ray DeMarchi, dm / Capri Records 2646668X
Michael Pagán is described in the publicity sheet for this disc as a fixture on the Kansas City jazz scene, but since I don’t live in Kansas City and have never been there I hadn’t heard of him before. Nonetheless, this is a refreshing album to have nowadays, when everything else seems to be some sort of avant-garde, soft slow “jazz lite” or neo-Swing. This is a true neo-Bop album, the music harking back to a time when Bird was in his last year and Dizzy was again on the ascendant.
Except that there are no trumpets in this group, just two saxes with rhythm section.
Nor is this comparison just an idea of mine. The very first track, Burn It Forward, sounds for all the world like a Charlie Parker composition, and one with a memorable melodic line. (How many modern-day jazz tunes can you think of that have a MEMORABLE melody?) Interestingly, the two saxists take turns on their various instruments, for instance on track 1 where Herrera is first up on alto (sounding quite Bird-like) while Chael is on tenor (sounding, to my ears, a bit like Getz and a bit like Herb Geller…anyone out there besides me remember Geller?). As for the leader, his sparkling piano improvisations reminded me of Al Haig, which is no small achievement. Haig, not Bud Powell, was Bird’s favorite pianist. Michael Pagán’s son Louie is the bassist, and while his improvisations are good I can’t say that I liked his tone on electric bass. It’s a bit too muddy and generic-sounding; it doesn’t have the clean articulation or drive of someone like Jaco Pastorius. (Yes, I know that Pastorius was the undisputed king of jazz electric bass and no one really sounds exactly like him, but cleaner articulation would have been welcome.)
But I’m saving the best, in a way, for last. Ray DeMarchi is a HELL of a drummer. He knows how to drive the band without overwhelming it with unwanted flash. He doesn’t try to break up the beat constantly into fractions of fractions, he doesn’t try to bury his bandmates in a torrent of flashy riffs and rim shots. He just plays great drums and that’s that.
Deep In My Soul is a Latin-tinged ballad; the melody is somewhat memorable, but I’ll take somewhat once in a while. Both saxists play well, but somehow the laid-back tempo seems to have diffused the brilliance one heard on Burn It Forward. Louie Pagán’s electric bass solo on this one is a little more clearly defined, probably because he doesn’t have to play so fast, but it is his father’s piano solo that really dominates this piece. It is a gem and has a good drive to it. The repeated coda goes on too long. (Sorry, but I don’t much like ballads, particularly when the melodic line is really just a couple of riffs sewn together.)
Guess Whose Blues is an unusual, medium-tempo composition in 6/8 with a real constructed melody in B-flat minor that keeps ending on the G below the tonic. I loved this piece, liked the arrangement, and couldn’t get enough of it. It put me in mind of some other jazz composer but, for the life of me, I can’t recall who (that happens sometimes when you have an encyclopedia of jazz musicians and styles inside the filing cabinet of your head). And everybody sounds good on this track; each chorus of every solo, including the tasteful drum breaks, fits together like fingers in a glove. This is one of those ultra-rare perfect jazz performances where composition, arrangement and solos all unite to produce a seamless, almost inevitable musical progression from first note to last.
This is followed by three consecutive pieces written by others: Steve Swallow’s Eiderdown, Kenny Wheeler’s Where Do We Go From Here? and Clare Fischer’s Gaviota. The first of these is also set to an excellent arrangement and is very close in its perfection of solos (especially the leader’s on piano, which really grabbed me) to Guess Whose Blues. The second is a ballad on which the real standout is Chael’s tenor solo, and the third is one of those slow-funky pieces with a Latin feel that Fischer wrote so many of late in his career.
I think what impressed me most about this group as a whole was how much these recordings sounded like live performances. What I mean by that is not just that they have a nice frisson, some excitement about them, and don’t sound canned. I hear way too many jazz CDs by bands, sometimes big bands, which seem to be playing really hot arrangements but their playing sounds forced, as if they were still a little asleep but were trying to sound energetic in the studio. (Perhaps this is something that’s hard to put into words, but you’d know what I meant if I played examples for you.)
Just the Other Day is another tune with a good, solid melody line, set to a medium uptempo that’s just perky enough to remind one of some more late-1950s jazz. Herrera plays an outstanding soprano sax solo on this one, followed by a very good one from Chael on tenor and the leader on piano.
Napoli, the closer, returns us to a boppish feel, but this time with an Italian rather than a Latin feel…it almost sounds like the old Louis Prima and the Witnesses band playing a bop line (with a middle section played in 6/4, if you can believe it). Chael plays an absolutely phenomenal tenor solo on this one, his best on the record, and the leader really cooks on piano.
Despite a couple of mediocre tracks, this is mostly a very good album, well worth checking out.
—© 2024 Lynn René Bayley
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