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| Brian Blade &The Fellowship Band |
Seventeen
months have passed since the Paradise Jazz Series has put on a live concert.
The series returned Friday evening with a memorable set from Brian Blade &
The Fellowship Band. The 90-minute set was live-streamed and only available in-person
to a limited number of people. Blade is no stranger to the series, having performed
there with the Wayne Shorter Quartet and the Chick Corea Trio. Blade is one of the
more spirited jazz drummers working. Most know him for his stints with Joshua
Redman, Shorter, Corea, and Joni Mitchell. Blade is also a valued bandleader who kept the Fellowship Band running for 24 years. Friday’s night set
at Detroit’s Orchestra Hall reaffirmed, for me, his band is unlike any other in
jazz I’ve heard. They played cuts from their Blue Note recordings, opening the concert
with “Return of the Prodigal Son,” penned by pianist Jon Cowherd. All but one selection
Cowherd wrote. Throughout the concert, the band had two identities. Starting out
mellow, and midway through a number morphing into a band that straddled the fence
of the avant-garde. Saxophonists Myron Walden and Melvin Bulter stood out. Walden
wolfed down the changes to “Landmarks,” and “Traveling Mercy like mini-pastries.
“The best parts of the concert were Blades improvisational exchanges with
Bulter on “Throwing Stones,” and with Cowherd on “Duality. They were the launching
pads for Blade’s missile-like rimshots and his goosebump-inducing solos.
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