Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival
Moscow Idaho
2/25/07
After presentation of student winners, Saturday evening’s final concert began with one piece by pianist Benny Green, bassist Christian McBride, guitarist Russell Malone and drummer Jeff Hamilton–the festival house band–who then accompanied James Morrison. Morrison began “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” on trombone with a long, exhibitionistic acapella cadenza that subsided into a melodic first chorus. As he built intensity in his improvisation, the rhythm section urged him on. Green’s comping led the charge. The others dug into the developing groove. The swing that Hamilton generated during Green’s, Malone’s and McBride’s solos was irresistible. Morrision reentered on trumpet, taking the horn boldly where no man but Maynard Ferguson had gone before. After making several orbits, Morrison landed in the low register with an expansive tone and a few quiet phrases. His welcome dip into lyricism raised a question: if he can play that tastefully, why doesn’t he allow his more thoughtful self out in public more often?
Before intermission came two quintets with identical instrumentation, the same pianist and different personalities. Trumpeter Roy Hargrove kicked his group into a fast modal piece that sizzled with excitement and a sense of risk-taking that characterized most of the set. In an unnamed Latin tune (Hargrove made no announcements), alto saxophonist Justin Robinson played an impressive, if busy and slightly repetitious, solo. Hargrove followed with a lesson in the use of space to make a solo breathe without losing anything of intensity or rhythm. Gerald Clayton inflected his piano choruses with bebop figures that melded into the Latin groove. Bassist Joe Sanders and drummer Montez Coleman had a rhythm fiesta, Coleman’s explosive accents kicking the time along.
Hargrove played “Fools Rush In” on flugelhorn, creating a highlight of the festival. If I had entertained doubts that he finds his truest expression on the larger horn, this performance would have erased them. His chorus of pure melody led into a lovely solo by Clayton. Then, with his cashmere sound, Hargrove improvised a chorus in long tones and a few fluid runs, caressed the final eight bars of Rube Bloom’s melody, added a held note and ended with a sweet afterthought of a tag. Simply beautiful.
Clayton stayed on stage to play in the Clayton Brothers Quintet led by his bassist father John and his uncle Jeff, one of the few alto saxophonists who takes Cannonball Adderley as his primary model. His Cannonball leanings predominated, but in the ballad “That Night,” Jeff Clayton introduced a bit of Johnny Hodges sensualilty. Trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos and drummer Obed Calvaire completed the group. Castellanos, one of the bright lights of Southern California’s jazz scene, played brilliantly in the front line with Jeff Clayton and helped to remind the audience that the post-bop tradition of Art Blakey and Horace Silver is alive. In a piece called “Gina’s Groove,” Gerald Clayton summoned up Silver’s infectious style. His father, a protégé of Ray Brown, continues the Brown institution of solid time and a fat sound. An exemplar of the bow, in the course of the festival he played several masterly arco solos. In “Last Stop,” the senior Clayton’s arrangement emphasized ensemble dynamics, not a lost art in jazz, merely a rare one.
The concert and the festival wrapped up with the Lionel Hampton New York Big Band backing three guest vocalists. Roberta Gambarini gave a commanding performance of Benny Carter’s “When Lights Are Low.” Dee Daniels, who applies gospel soul to everything she sings, did “Our Love Is Here To Stay,”complete with a just-us-girls suggestive monologue. John Pizzarrelli, guitar in hand, sang and played three songs from the Frank Sinatra tribute album he made with the Clayton-Hamilton big band. For Pizzarelli’s set, the Jeff Hamilton Trio served as the rhythm section with the Hampton Band. Pizzarelli sang with his usual boyish charm and verve. On “You Make Me Feel So Young,” he played an intricate solo and negotiated a tricky guitar part with the ensemble. He achieved serious swing in his guitar/voice unison improvisation on “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby.”
For the penultimate number, the Hampton band played–what else?–“Flyin’ Home,” with solos all ’round. Doug Lawrence tore it up with a tenor saxophone solo that would have had Hampton grinning ear to ear. Finally, things quieted and the live band accompanied the recorded Hampton singing “What A Wonderful World” as a digital slide show on huge screens illustrated the history of the Lionel Hampton festival from 1984 to that very evening. It was an emotional remembrance of Hamp and a retirement sendoff for Dr. Lynn Skinner, the founder and director of the festival from its beginning. The new festival regime will be headed by John Clayton.