HOUSTON PERSON TALKS ABOUT DUET WITH RON CARTER, HIS REVERENCE FOR DETROIT, AND PUTTING THE FUN BACK IN JAZZ

Tenor saxophonist Houston Person won’t go on the record to acknowledge if “Chemistry,” his new duet recording with Ron Carter out on High Note Records, is his absolute favorite collaboration with the famed jazz bassist. For many moons now, Houston has been the reigning sage of soul-jazz, quick-witted improvisationally, on top of owning a tone on the sax that’s lush and sophisticated. As for Carter, chief among his legend is having blessed upwards of two-thousand jazz albums as a sideman, and for decades carrying the title of most revered jazz bassist of all times.

 Houston did acknowledge, however, that he loves each duet recording equally. Person and Carter started working together in the early 90’s. Since then they’ve recorded sixth highly-touted duets. On them, the duo used every square inch of their jazz acumen and boundless virtuosity on well-known standards that jazz musicians, according to Person, rarely perform nowadays.

“Chemistry,” has standards such as “Bye Bye Blackbird,” “Young and Foolish,” “I Can’t Get Started,” and “Blue Monk”. Person and Carter are in excellent form, and the standards sound freshly minted in their care. A few weeks ago, Person spoke with I Dig Jazz via telephone about “Chemistry,” his reverence for Carter, and what jazz lacks at the moment.

When did you and Ron Carter start collaborating?

We go way back. I met Ron at one of our union meetings for musicians. I've always been a big fan of Ron. He took his band and me on tour in Japan, and we got to be real good friends. We found out we like a lot of the same things like Scrabble. We'd play Scrabble to pass the time. Warming up before a concert I'd be playing songs, and he would play with me just bass and horn in the dressing room. He knew the lyrics to a lot of tunes. We liked a lot of the standards and the old jazz tunes. We started playing a lot of those tunes. We developed a mutual respect for each other and the music. I'm making it real short and brief for you, but we're just sort of good, good friends.

“Chemistry”  is your sixth duo album with Carter.

People like them, people really like them. I have to give praise to the record companies for letting us do them, and the record companies keep asking for them, so Ron and I keep doing them.

You guys performed only standards on this album. Was that a decision you and Carter made not to record any originals?

I would pick the tunes. We would set up the tunes that we wanted to play. Some of our earlier duo albums we did a lot of jazz classics. The last two albums we did standards. We enjoyed that, and Ron being the great accompanist that he is, is the anchor for everything. He adds fresh life into all of those songs. Sometimes, I like to play those tunes that everybody thinks are outdated. I'm still dedicated to the jazz classics too, the real jazz tunes.

How do you and Carter pump new life into standards and classic jazz songs?

One thing is I would play the melody, and the harmonic structure Ron added to it. He can add different harmonies to the tunes. Sometimes, we do different tempos and different rhythms.

Over your career, you've played in a lot of different contexts. Are there particular challenges just playing in a duo situation?

There are no challenges. You see, I got a good partner, that's the first thing you want to do. I was told a long time ago when you get in a band, make sure everybody in the band is better than you. What that meant was make sure you have great musicians with you.

Ron adds so much, so many ideas rhythmically, little motifs then he will give you different little things he will set up for you. You just got to be alert. That's the fun and joy of playing jazz. When you're playing with the great Ron Carter, you find something to play. That's the challenge staying in tune and staying on the message that you're trying to deliver.

What made “Chemistry” extra special was legendary jazz engineer/producer Rudy Van Gelder’s involvement. How excited was he about working with you and Carter?

He loved it, man. We've been together, Rudy and I, for 40 years I've been recording with him. He's just great and still gets excited about doing sessions. I say this all the time; he's the producer. He's my producer because he has helped me throughout the years. He keeps me on the ball. Rudy is a hell of a guy. He's been the world to me; he's been very nice to me over the years and taken care of me.

Is this your favorite duet with Carter of the six?

I'm going to tell you the truth; I like them all.

You’re 81 now, you're still playing a lot of horn, and you're touring like crazy. What keeps you going?

I love playing. I love the music, and I think I'm making a contribution. I like helping the young guys, and giving them advice and mentoring them, and I like meeting people and different cultures, and breaking down barriers. There are so many barriers out there, so musically we try to tear them down.

I read that Detroit is one of your favorite cities. Do you have any fond recollection of working in Detroit?

I love Detroit. When I went to Detroit, when I was pretty much starting out and people stuck with me. The people there, they helped me so much.

Who are some of the people? Are you referring to the musicians there?

I worked at Mozambique, and I did an album featuring Detroit musicians Eli Fountain, then Wild Bill Moore. You got to get a copy of that, man. You will hear the whole feeling that was going on back then. I did some Motown stuff, too. I played Baker’s. Detroit was very good to me. Detroit gave me my first big record. Yeah, so I owe a lot to the people of Detroit.

You've seen jazz go through many changes. What's your thoughts on where the music is today?

I know where it should be.

Where is that?

We need to put the fun back in it. We need to be reaching out to the community more. We need to put the dance back in it. We need to put the Blues back in it.

When did those elements get lost?

I don't know. What do you think?

I like where the music is right now. I think there are some good players out there…

No, I'm not talking about the players. I didn't mean that. I'm not putting any player down. Man, you've got some bad cats out there now. I was just saying we need not be so serious about it. Okay, you can play, now let's have some fun. That's what I'm saying. See, your parents are people who back in the day, they used to go out dancing. They would be dancing and having fun.

Today the emphasis seems to be on virtuosity.

Yeah. That's what happened when we let the dance go. You can't dance. You had to sit and listen. The music stopped being fun, and then people started moving over to rock and roll or something else. You just ask anybody in Detroit about how it used to be there. I was there back in the day. It was different. That's what I'm saying. Put the blues back in there and let's have some fun.

DOMINICK FARINACCI FED AUDIENCE AT THE DIRTY DOG JAZZ CAFE MUSIC FROM HIS BIG LABEL DEBUT ' SHORT STORIES'

Dominick Farinacci

The first time I caught the jazz trumpeter Dominick Farinacci live was at the 2003 Ford Detroit International Jazz Festival. Back then, he was a sophomore at Julliard, and a member of the late jazz trumpeter Marcus Belgrave’s Trumpet Summit, comprised of Sean Jones, Chris Johnson, Corey Wilkes, Dwight Adams, and John Douglas. Farinacci was a stand out among those then up-and-comers.

Since participating in that summit, Farinacci has built quite a reputation, getting a big break with Jazz at Lincoln Center, touring the Middle East as a jazz ambassador, and making eight well-reviewed jazz albums as a bandleader.

Last month, Mack Avenue Records put out “Short Stories,” his major label debut. Farinacci has traveled the world, absorbing many cultures, and he’s become a pro mixing jazz with his diverse cultural experiences and influences.

A sold-out audience at the Dirty Dog Jazz Café Saturday night experienced Farinacci’s eclectic style of jazz. He was at the cafe promoting “Short Stories,” and he performed with his current band pianist Kevin Bales, drummer Quincy Phillips, bassist Aidan Plank, and percussionist Mathias Kunzli.

Farinacci's band fed the Dirty Dog audience cuts from the new album, opening the concert with “Bamboleo “ followed by a marvelous take on “Black Coffee,” that rivals saxophonist Sonny Criss’s take on his 1966 Prestige Records album “This Is Criss!”.

Farinacci is a showman through and through. His playing can both speed up and slow your heartbeat. The entire concert he served strong solos that’ll surely be talking points in weeks to come. There was also a comedic component to Farinacci’s presentation. He poked fun at his sidemen, prefaced each number with a humorous story of its conception.

During one solo he manipulated a glass in the bell of the trumpet to produce a muted sound. Before the concert commenced, he plugged the new album by walking through the audience holding up a large photo of the cover of “Short Stories”. Farinacci solos on “Tango,” and “Soldier’s Things,” were serious business.

A prize moment came when Farinacci gave the floor to Kunzli and Phillips, on “Senor Blues,” and they pulled off a simultaneous solo. Listening to Farinacci, I imagined how mind blowing it must’ve been to watch trumpeters such as Harry James and Bix Beiderbecke perform in small jazz clubs back in the day.

MUST HAVE ALBUMS FROM BRANFORD MARSALIS, CYRUS CHESTNUT, DAN PRATT, MIKE LUGERNER & SHEILA LANDIS AND RICK MATLE

“Hymn For The Happy Man” is the first time saxophonist Dan Pratt has recorded an album as a leader with a conventional rhythm section. The past eight years, the organ has been the centerpiece of Pratt's band. The change was a good move. The new album which has seven originals and solid contributions from bassist Christian McBride, drummer Gregory Hutchinson, and pianist Mike Eckroth. McBride and Hutchinson are household figures. Eckroth is the band's centerpiece. He played one meaty solo after the next. “Hymn For The Happy Man” is a colossal outing for Pratt, who has a bulletproof track record as a leader, and as a hired gun for outfits such as the Christian McBride Big Band, and the Village Vanguard Orchestra. There's an odd mix of beauty and raw aggression to his playing. He blows with such pure force on  “Gross Blue” and on “Warsaw” it's a wonder his tenor didn't explode in his hands before the songs ended.

Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean was a hard-bopper by nature yet equally proficient in other brands of jazz. He died in 2006, and he left the planet upwards of fifty albums, of which many are now hard-bop classics. Bay Area alto saxophonist Steven Lugerner is an admirer of McLean’s work. Lugerner new album “Jacknife The Music Of Jackie McLean” is his tribute to McLean. As a saxophonist, Lugerner has one foot rooted in post-bop and the other in free-jazz. For this tribute, Lugerner remade “Jacknife,” one of McLean’s best albums for Blue Note Records. Throughout the album, Lugerner blew as if nourished from birth on an exclusive diet of McLean’s music. How good is this remake? If McLean were around to hear it, he’d be damn proud of Lugerner and his top-flight sidemen pianist Richard Sears, bassist Garret Lang, and drummer Michael Mitchell. It was a pleasure listening to them stretch out on McLean's "Das Dat," Melody for Melonae," and Hi.p Strut".

The past decade jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut has bounced from label to label. Currently, he's signed to High Note Records, and he's made some of his best work there. “Natural Essence" is Chestnut's new trio album, and it’s something to behold. The trio is the best setting to experience Chestnut’s pure virtuosity. Chestnut chose familiar standards such as "It Could Happen To You," "I Cover The Water Front," and "My Romance". To aid in repurposing those standards, Chestnut hired two skilled hands bassist Buster Williams, and drummer Lenny White. The lead off cut "Mamacita" will give your soul goosebumps. Chestnut has a gift for appearing to play two pianos at the same time on up-tempo numbers. Chestnut changes sidemen for each album. The chemistry he has with Williams and White is effortless. Pray Chestnut keeps this trio together.

Vocalist Sheila Landis and guitarist Rick Matle musical loveship has been going strong for nearly three decades, and they have produced a body of outstanding recordings. "Beautiful Things" is the duo's new offspring. There're seventeen songs recorded live. Many of the duo’s recordings have been a showcase for Landis, one of the more dynamic jazz vocalists on the planet. This album contains everything's she’s offered for decades vocally. She has a gorgeous voice. At the drop of a hat, she can change it into a muted trumpet, a trombone, a sax, and even a drum. Her pitch perfect scatting would make Ella, and Armstrong jealous. This time around, Matle's virtuosity, his God-given ability to make his seven string guitar howl, cry, and melt in the palm of his hands is the draw. “Fine Fat Daddy," “Taller In The Morning," and "In a Mellow Tone" are the cuts likely to garnered the most water cooler talk.

When I received word jazz vocalist Kurt Elling was the guest star on a new album by the Branford Marsalis Quartet, I wondered how Elling would fit into the tightest jazz band working. Two cuts into "Upward Spiral," the phenomenal result of the quartet’s collaboration with Elling, I was convinced Marsalis ought to offer Elling a permanent spot in the quartet. Rumor spread Marsalis wanted Elling for this project because of his flexibility. Drop Elling in any musical situation and he’ll succeed. “Upward Spiral” is mostly recrafted golden oldies. What a good fit Elling is in the quartet come through on the "Blue Gardenia," "Doxy," "I am a Fool to Want You," and "Blue Velvet”.

INTRODUCING COREY KENDRICK: MSU GRAD, FAMILY GUY, AND COMPOSER WITH A TERRIFIC DEBUT 'ROOTLESS' OUT NOW

In a recent interview with this blog, jazz guitarist Randy Napoleon asserted that jazz is in good hands with the current generation of up-and-comers. As a professor of jazz at Michigan State University, Napoleon would certainly know that because he’s helping develop future swingers. If you want some hard evidence that Napoleon knows what the hell he’s talking about, I implore you to get “Rootless,” a self-produced debut album by MSU grad pianist Corey Kendrick.  Kendrick, 31, is a native of Iowa, who left a good paying secure job in Iowa, moved his family to Michigan, studied jazz at MSU, and he’s presently raising holy hell in Detroit as a go-to pianist, composer, and bandleader.

At MSU Kendrick earned a Master’s in Jazz Studies. Jimmy Cobb, Etienne Charles, Jon Faddis, Christian McBride, and Jeff Hamilton are some of the high-end bandleaders Kendrick has performed with. “Rootless,” is a good of a debut you’re likely to hear this year. It has eleven cuts, three standards, and eight originals. There’s beauty at every turn. Kendrick is a dynamic interpreter of standards, proven on the oldies “Nature Boy,” and “In The Wee Small Hours”. His chops are in full bloom on originals such as “Alone In Michigan,” and “Lullaby For A New Mother”.  

Kendrick’s obvious influences are the late greats Bill Evans, and Kenny Kirkland. If they’re around to hear the meticulously wrought music on “Rootless” they’d blush. A big reason the album is a winner is the terrific playing from Kendrick’s  partner's bassist Joe Vasquez, and drummer Nick Bracewell. I Dig Jazz finally tore away from “Rootless” long enough to pick Kendrick’s brain about the album, and the challenges of building a name for himself in a jazz metropolis known for producing many of the planet’s greatest jazz pianists.

Is “Rootless” your mission statement?

The album is reflective of a very specific period of my life.  Before deciding to go back to school in 2013, my wife and I had a house in Iowa with a thirty-year mortgage and we were both at the kind of jobs where we could see spending the next 25, 30, 35 years and then retiring. I thought I could work a day job and play music here and there on nights and weekends, but I was away from music too much.  So we decided to take a risk, go back to school, get my Masters’ and pursue music full-time.  The material on this record is my attempt to put a lot of those feelings into music, loneliness, anxiety, new experiences, new friendships, joy, and new roots.  It’s an album about life in transition.

After listening to just a few cuts, I was convinced you’ve spent many man-hours dissecting Bill Evans’s, Oscar Peterson’s and Kenny Kirkland’s chops. Was either pianist big influences?

It’s hard to say definitively who my biggest influences are because sometimes it feels like that changes from week to week, but they were huge early influences, and I feel like that’s shaped my musical tastes in a big way.  I think, above all other things, I value swing and lyricism/melodicism.  And it’s hard to get more swinging than Oscar Peterson or more lyrical than Bill Evans.

Kenny Kirkland has been an influence, and one of my more recent influences. He was such a monster musician, just an incredible pianist and he wrote some gorgeous tunes. Rhythmically, he would play with odd note groupings, groups of 5's, 7's, etc.

Harmonically, he would play chords that aren't easily defined in terms of traditional Major 7th/Minor 7th/, etc. And compositionally, he wrote such beautiful, interesting tunes. And these are all things I've tried to take from him. I've spent so much time with his 1991 self-titled album. There are certain albums that, to me, are like secret handshakes. They don't make traditional Top 10, 50, 100 lists, but I know that, if you like that album, we're going to be friends. Kenny's album fits into that category.

Did you design “Rootless” to be representative of everything you have to offer the planet musically at this formative stage of your career?

Definitely, quite a few of the tunes started as exercises to work on different musical challenges I was facing with the intent of stretching me in uncomfortable directions.  But by setting a deadline it was a challenge to me to play some of these uncomfortable forms, harmonies, time signatures, and try to rise to the occasion.  I’m looking forward to playing the material live. We have about six or seven dates booked right now, and seeing how they continue to develop.

“Alone In Michigan,” “Julian’s Tune,” and “Lullaby For A New Mother” are songs on the album likely to get played over and over. Can you explain what you were going through when you wrote those songs?

“Alone In Michigan” was written over a particularly lonely weekend.  We hadn’t been living in Michigan long, and I was out on tour over the weekend, so my wife went home to visit her family and took our dog with her.  I returned late to an empty house with no wife and no dog, and I didn’t know very many people yet, so I was trying to capture that feeling of being alone in an unfamiliar place. 

“Julian’s Tune” is a little more academic.  It started as a sketch from another MSU student, Julian Velasco, who is a fantastic jazz and classical saxophonist.  He showed me a tune he was working on, and I loved the first couple chords and asked him if I could borrow them to write something.  I was listening to a lot of Kenny Kirkland at the time, and there’s a beautiful tune by Kenny called 

“Dienda” and I wanted to write something similar, a lyrical waltz with a bit of a “classical” sound. 

 Often in jazz, we use 4 and 8-bar phrases to the point where it becomes expected, but there are a couple of spots in “Dienda” where Kenny uses 5-bar phrases, and by lengthening the phrases, it adds so much drama because the tune just feels like it hangs there, waiting for something to happen.  I’d thought of using melody or harmony for drama, but not form.  So I wanted to write something incorporating all those elements, and I owe a debt to Kenny and Julian.

“Lullaby For A New Mother” is a tune that’s special to me.  It was written last. The trio recorded the record in November of last year, and my son was born just two months prior, in September.  I was sitting at the piano one night not long before the session, and from the bench, I could see my wife and son on the couch.  

The way she was looking down at him, and he back up at her, was so touching.  I wanted to write something that tried to capture that sweetness, but also the full range of emotions experienced as a new parent, especially in those first months.  So it starts out sweet, but by the very end, it’s swung around to the fraught, nervous energy that was characteristic of that period.

Nick Bracewell, Corey Kendrick, and Joe Vasquez

Drummer Nick Bracewell and bassist Joe Vasquez are amazing on “Rootless”. Give some insight on their overall contribution musically and otherwise to this terrific album.

Well, firstly, they’re just fantastic musicians.  When I thought about recording an album, they were the first two people who came to mind.  Joe just finished his Master’s at MSU, studying with bassist Rodney Whitaker, and Nick just finished the first year of his Master’s at MSU as well. I met both of them about three years ago, and the great thing about studying music at a college is how much playing you get to do.  I’d say the three of us probably played together 3 or 4 times a week in one context or another, for two years, and that’s an experience that is becoming rarer now. 

The days of the six-month club residency or even the one or two-week long club engagements seem to have mostly gone, and there’s something a group develops over an extended time playing together. 

You develop a set of musical gestures, a shorthand, and a mutual understanding.  As a result, there were very few fixes that were needed once we went into the studio – for the most part, we were able to play it all live.  Plus, they’re both good friends, and I feel like that adds another dimension to the music. You end up looking forward to a gig as much for the hang as the music.

How supportive has the Detroit jazz community been of your aspirations as a jazz musician?

So many people who I’ve met here have been hugely supportive.  There’s such a strong tradition of mentorship in Detroit.  Rodney Whitaker always talks about “reach one teach one,” and I’ve found that to be true of so many musicians I’ve met here, very giving of their time and always open to talk about music.  It was very evident at the Kenn Cox tribute last year at the Carr Center.  To hear Rodney and Shahida Nurullah talk about Kenn’s mentorship, and then to see the work they’ve done in the Detroit music community, and to see that pass through generations is a beautiful thing.  It becomes evident why there is so much great music in Detroit.

What are some of the challenges you face as a jazz pianist establishing a name for yourself in Detroit where greats such as Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, Geri Allen, Teddy Harris Jr., Harold McKinney, Hank Jones, and Gary Schunk set the bar?

Because of the tradition of mentorship, so many amazing musicians have come out of Detroit.  Of course, it’s a challenge when I compare myself to these greats, but it’s also very inspiring having such strong models to aspire to.  Though it may feel like a challenge at times, I think it pushes me to try to play at a higher level.  

PARADISE JAZZ SERIES ENDED SEASON WITH SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE'S TAKE ON MICHAEL JACKSON'S HITS

SFJazz Collective

Yearly, the SFJazz Collective, an all-star octet perform music of iconic musicians past and present. In the octet’s twelve you history, it has performed the music of greats such as Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, and Stevie Wonder. Friday evening, before a sold-out audience at Orchestra Hall in mid-town Detroit, the octet closed the Paradise Jazz Series season with a two-hour presentation of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson’s, hits arranged for a discriminating jazz demographic. The octet also presented original compositions. Sean Jones, Robin Eubanks, David Sanchez, Miguel Zenon, Warren Wolf, Edward Simon, Matt Penman, and Obed Calvaire are the current members of the SFJC. That’s some major muscle. Each musician is an accomplished bandleader with solid discographies. So, how was the octet’s presentation of Jackson’s hits “The Love You Save,” ”Blame It on The Boogie,” “Don’t Stop Until You Get Enough,” ”Thriller,” “Human Nature,” and “This Place Hotel”? If Jackson had attended the concert, he would’ve been moonwalking up and down the aisles until his feet were blistered. The concert had many high points, Sanchez’s pit-bull mean soloing on his arrangement of “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” Wolf stretching out on “Human Nature,” and Jones and Eubank trading measures on “Thriller”. The octet’s originals “Fall Prelude,” “Beauty of Space,” and “Franklin & Fell” made the concert extra special. When the octet switched from Jackson’s hits to its originals it appeared the audience was being treated to two concerts for the cost of one

JD ALLEN TREATED HIS HOMETOWN FANS TO MUSIC FROM 'AMERICANA' AND SAMPLINGS FROM HIS VAST CATALOGUE

Tenor saxophonist JD Allen

The jazz saxophonist JD Allen said in a recent Q&A with a popular jazz blog that whenever he plays Detroit, his hometown, he’s nervous as hell because you can’t bullshit Detroit jazz fans. When a jazz band hits the D, the band has to come hard with an all-out blue collar work ethic. Sunday, evening at Cliff Bell’s, Allen’s trio swung with all their might for two awe-inspired sets. If Allen was nervous, it was impossible to tell. Allen came home in part to push his fantastic new album “Americana Musings On Jazz and Blues” out last month on Savant Records and hailed by many jazz critics and jazz bloggers as Allen’s most formidable recording to date. Allen treated the packed house not only to cuts from “Americana” but also a variable sampling from his prodigious catalogue. If there was one disappointment, it was the absence of Allen’s longstanding running buddies bassist Gregg August and drummer Rudy Royston. However, the backup Allen hired drummer Jonathan Barber, and bassist Joseph Lepore were terrific replacements. The musicians played their asses completely off both sets, particularly Barber who struck the drums with bolts of lightning, it seemed, instead of drumsticks. Barber was drumming with such fury during the first set I wondered if he’d have enough gas left to get through the second set.  Obviously, Allen has an affinity for Barber ferocious style of drumming. It’s just a matter of time before Allen has Barber on the payroll full time. The trio played for one-hour and fifteen minutes straight the first set before coming up for air. They let the audience ears cool down by playing the ballad “Stardust”. The second set was equally awe-inspiring as the first. It was a smart move having the concert Sunday evening instead of a Friday or Saturday evening when Cliff Bell’s is so noisy it’s hard to enjoy the jazz.  People in attendance came out to experience one of the top jazz saxophonist blowing on the planet these days, and Allen’s performance was epic. 

JD ALLEN ON HIS NEW ALBUM 'AMERICANA', HIS BLUE COLLAR APPROACH TO MAKING MUSIC, AND ALWAYS BEING A NERVOUS WRECK PERFORMING IN HIS HOMETOWN

JD Allen

The consensus among many JD Allen enthusiasts, jazz critics, and jazz bloggers is “Americana (Musing on Jazz And Blues) is the saxophonist’s best creation to date. “This record is, to me, an instant classic, right up there with “A Love Supreme,” and “Glass Bead Games,” and the like. First of all, the music is completely honest, without guile, straight from the heart. There is no agenda here, nothing slick or contrived. Just the heart of jazz, which is the blues.” that’s a piece of a quote that the founder of the Detroit Groove Society house concert series Andrew Rothman posted on Facebook a day after hearing “Americana”(Musing on Jazz and Blues). 

Allen is forty-three, a native Detroiter, and he got his start in the D with a jazz group named Legacy years before he moved to New York. The depth of Allen’s imagination coupled with his boundless prowess on the tenor sax has drawn comparison to greats such as Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane. Allen hasn't achieved the celebrity those jazz icons have, but he’s well on his way. Among discriminating jazz people, Allen is already a household name. Right now, he has ten albums to his credit. Since joining Savant Records in 2012, he’s made a recording yearly.

Allen acknowledges jazz saxophonists worth their weight in gold tackles the blues at some point in their development. John Coltrane, Branford Marsalis, Booker Ervin,  and Gene Ammons did it. A few Sundays ago, I Dig Jazz talked with Allen via telephone about “Americana (Musing on Jazz And Blues,” his admiration for his longstanding trio, and other topics dear to the saxophonist’s development as a musician.

I want to start by putting you on the spot. Is "Americana (Musing on Jazz And Blues)" your favorite JD Allen record?

Well, each record that I make it's usually me advancing as a musician. At this moment, this is the better version of what I'm doing now. The next one will be better. Hopefully, the goal is to be better every time. At this moment, this is the best version of me for 2016.

You've been with your current trio drummer Rudy Royston and bassist Gregg August for a very long time. It seems as if the trio is intimately familiar with each other's psyche.

It’s basically what you said. We've gotten to the point where we're all pretty familiar with each other, so the fact that I don't have to say much in the studio. I trust them enough with whatever material I bring in. That's Important because we usually have a day of recording. The last few records, we haven't rehearsed. A lot of times, we go to the studio, and Gregg and Rudy would have just seen this material for the first time.

In that type of situation, you need people that you're familiar with and that you're comfortable with. People that can also push and challenge you. That’s why you want to keep a band together as long as possible. It helps you grow, and it helps the music go forward. That's basically all that is. If you look at history, a lot of the great bands had usually been together for a while. I'm just trying to follow along in that part of the tradition.

I'm not a project-oriented type guy. You won't get an experiment from me in terms of this is the JD Allen experiment. It's not a knock against anyone else who does that. I just try to develop a sound and improve with each recording. Rudy and Gregg, help me do that.

Did you have to test drive a lot of musicians before you found Gregg and Rudy?

Gregg was a neighbor of mine in Brooklyn. I used to see him walking his dog. I had played with Gregg first in his band. It was kind of like one day I ran into Gregg in the neighborhood, and I told him I was working on some trio stuff. He suggested Rudy to me. Back then, I hadn't met Rudy yet.

At the first rehearsal, man, I felt this was the unit. I won't say that we gelled immediately, but I was like, Yeah, this is a good situation. It was a good fit. It was like trying on shoes. Shoes that feel so good and that look so good. You’re going to wear them as long as possible.

That's a great analogy.

That was it. I would say that I think by the time we came out with this recording called "Victory!” we started to gel. We started to come together. We’re still improving. Like I said, the trio should get better with every recording. When you listen to a musician, you should hear progress.

What's the ingredient that keeps Rudy and Gregg coming back, and that keeps the music interesting?

I don't know the ingredient. When I'm the leader of a situation, I ask that musicians not get comfortable. I feel if you are not walking off the stage sweating, then you didn't play hard. I try to keep a blue collar mentality towards playing live and recording.

Rudy and Gregg, they fit the bill. They never relax, it's never a situation where we relax and are just dialing it in or phoning it in. We just play as hard as possible. Branford Marsalis said that you have to beat people over the head with jazz. You have to hit them with energy and power for them to appreciate it.

I think in my heart of hearts it's the energy that people want. That's what they want to get from music. Jazz can provide that.

I don't know if that attracts Rudy and Gregg to the situation. I haven't thought about why they still play with me. I hope that it is interesting to them. I hope that would be their answer if someone had asked them that question.

I hear Booker Ervin and Branford Marsalis in your playing. Were either big influences on you?

Branford is a super big influence on me. I think he was the first guy that I’d heard in my younger days who had that cry in his playing, maybe that's the blues. What drew me to his playing, he had sensibilities of both Mr. Rollins and Mr. Coltrane in his playing, but yet he was still himself in that.

That attracted me to him as a younger player because, before that, I was checking out saxophonists Albert Ayler and David Murray and then cats like Frank Lowe. I was a James Carter clone in Detroit. I wanted to be James Carter.

Listening to Marsalis that introduced me to Ornette Coleman and a lot of other people. You're right to say that Branford is an influence of mine.

 Anybody worth his salt should listen to Booker Ervin. He has that cry also, and he's one of the Texas tenors, who every tenor saxophone player should check out.

What was the impetus for making “Americana (Musing on Jazz And Blues)” at this stage of your career?

Well once again, it was something for growth. In a way, I guess there's a selfish element to making a record. When you make a recording, you're documenting your growth and where you're at that time. I felt developing a closer relationship to the blues would make me a better player. It was purely selfish, man. I want to be a better musician. To do that, I had to get into the blues.

Examples that made me look in that direction, of course, "Coltrane Plays the Blues". That's one of my favorite records. Branford Marsalis’s "I Heard You Twice the First Time" is another one. Years ago that kind of hip me to the fact that man, maybe at some point I have to deal with the blues. My heroes are dealing with the blues, and they can all play their asses off, so maybe that'll help me get to that.

I tried my hand at it because the guys I look up to, who I've just named, have done recordings like that. I had an opportunity to record, so I gave it a shot not knowing if people were going to like it. I was pretty afraid before I did it. I thought maybe it wouldn't be interesting enough to people; maybe it's not flashy enough. It was something that I wanted to do for development. It wasn't anything like this is a good marketing idea. It was just purely selfish. I wanted to grow.

One of the standout songs on the album is "Bigger Thomas"…

Now see, that was the one I didn't think anybody was going to dig.

Was the song inspired by your investigation of Richard Wright's novel "Native Son"?

Yeah, I love Richard Wright. 

Talk some about the song’s evolution.

It's not a blues per se, but there is a blues section to it. You have a certain maze of chords that you got to go through that some people would associate with John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” chords, which I stretched out. I'm not going to get too technical, but the last eight or sixteen bars is in C-sharp minor, which I do play the blues on top of.

Okay, where it's placed in the record starts out with the straight up slow blues, and you get into the spiritual blues, and then you get into folkloric type blues and then "Bigger Thomas" was to represent the city blues.

I'm a big Richard Wright fan, man. I love his stuff. To me, that name fit that song in the sense of it is an urban thing, but yet as sophisticated as it's trying to be the result is it gets back to the blues. 

The last time you were in Detroit, you performed at the Detroit Groove Society house concert series. The trio tore it up.

Oh, we tried, man. We tried to burn the house down, in a good way.

When you return to Detroit for your concert on June 12th at Cliff Bell's, will the set list include music from “Americana?

Yeah, we're going to play something from "Americana". I usually play something from every record. I have a book that's huge, and I never know what I'm going to play. I just get a feel for what the audience is feeling and what I'm feeling being in that room. I just go for it.

Whatever we play, we're going to play as hard as possible, man. That's my motto. If we play "Mary Had a Little Lamb", we're going to try to burn that down.

What does it mean to you when you have an opportunity to return home to perform?

To play at home is very nerve wrecking because I know I can't bullshit anybody in Detroit. I come from a town with a rich history of great saxophonists. I mean, you got Larry Smith there, you got James Carter and Vincent Bowens there.  I mean all types of people come out of Detroit.

I usually get nervous. I have to close my eyes and just block everybody out just to play. Sometimes I'm scared, man. I hope the people come out. You never know if anybody at home is going to come. The show I did last year at the Detroit Groove Society, I was surprised to see anybody there, man. It made me feel great. I was worried nobody was going to show up. I'm happy to play at home. It's a good time to see family, to see Detroit. That's always a good feeling, and a chance to recharge.

I have to go home and recharge and remember why I'm making music. You can get away and forget why in the hell you did this in the first place. When I go home, people remind me, and certain things I see in Detroit remind me this is why I’m a musician. This is what being a musician is about. You got to keep that spirit that we have in Detroit in you. That's important. You never want to get highfalutin where you get away from what it is that made you. I wish I could play in Detroit more.

We wish you could play here more often, too.

I would love to get to the kids there, man. I see this Detroit scene with younger musicians. If there was some way, I could get to them. If I could see the younger people there just once a month, man, I would do it. If there were a situation that opened up for me to do that, I would be more than happy than to come home and deal with that. People like Harold McKinney and Donald Walden helped me. If they had not been born, man, I probably would have ended up in Jackson State Penitentiary, the way I was going.

Wow!

I'm an Eastside boy. I'm from Mack Avenue. If I didn't run into Ali Jackson or James Carter, Alex Hardy or Ernie Rogers at Northwestern High School, I could’ve had a different path. It was laid out for me to go a different route, but thank God I found the horn, and I was blessed to go somewhere else. I love Detroit. I love the musicians there. If I could be an influence to somebody there, I would jump on that. I try to reach out to some of the younger guys on Facebook, but I haven't had the opportunity to sit down and chat with them. Maybe I can hook something up when I get home. I'll come in a day early, and we can all get together and just play. I love it, man. I'm proud to be from the D. Every opportunity I get to say that, I say it.

The JD Allen Trio performs at Cliff Bell's Sunday June 12th 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM  $25.00. 2030 Park Ave. Detroit, MI 48226 (313) 961-3543