David Sanford Big Band feat. Trumpeter Hugh Ragin: A Prayer For Lester Bowie
Greenleaf Music

How great it is to see David Sanford paying tribute to Lester Bowie, the one-of-a-kind trumpeter and co-founder of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, on this powerful collection. While it might be tempting to view Sanford's ensemble as his own version of the late icon's Brass Fantasy, there are differences. True to its name, Bowie's was primarily a brass outfit, with horns the focus and drummer Phillip Wilson a key non-brass element; Sanford's is a much larger unit that includes horns, saxes, and an expanded rhythm section of piano, bass, guitar, drums, and percussion. And while Bowie led his group with his own unmistakable horn, Sanford leads his as the conductor. Interestingly, of the album's eight pieces the one he doesn't conduct is the homage, that one instead written, arranged, and conducted by trumpeter Hugh Ragin, who studied with the AEC in the late ‘70s. In addition to six Sanford originals, the album also includes a swinging and euphoric riff on Dizzy Gillespie's “Dizzy Atmosphere.”

Key to the album's character is its raucous spirit, an effect attributable in part to the recording approach adopted by Sanford. Laid down live at Sear Sound in Manhattan, the performances attempt to simulate the sound of a band playing with a single microphone placed centrally within the room. He wanted to capture the wildness of a large ensemble working through charts and creating together, the music coming to life with vitality and verging on chaos but never quite tipping into it. Its mix of jazz, rock, and funk is raw and all the more dynamic for being so. A second reason for the intensity of the performances has to do with the players, among them tenor saxophonists Anna Webber and Marc Phaneuf, alto saxists Kelley Hart-Jenkins and Ted Levine, trumpeter Brad Goode, and tubaist Raymond Stewart. Other conspicuous game-changers are electric guitarist Dave Fabris, whose presence bolsters the grittiness of the music and whose wah-wah nudges it in the direction of Miles's immolating outfits from the ‘70s, and percussionist Theo Moore, who partners with drummer Mark Raynes, bassist Dave Phillips, and pianist Geoff Burleson to give the music thrust.

Aptly titled, “Full Immersion” plunges band and listener into a broiling funk-driven exercise spiked by an inspired Jim Messbauer trombone solo, Fabris's hypnotic wah-wah, Moore's congas, towering horn statements, and roiling tenor sax interplay by Webber and Geoff Vidal—and some of it in 7/4, no less. The pitch the band gets up to is as wild and pile-driving as NYC traffic on a Friday night, even if the piece was inspired in part by a fountain in Rome. With a bluesy Fabris carving a slow path through the thickets of “Subtraf,” don't be surprised if your thoughts turn to Miles's “He Loved Him Madly.” Shifting gears into noir-ish ballad territory, “Woman in Shadows” resonates for the evocative beauty of its muted trumpet textures and Levine's romantic alto solo (having been soothed by the ballad, brace yourself for the punk thrash of the brief “popit” that follows). At album's end is “V-Reel,” a funky, polyphonic dynamo that at times sounds like another take on “Full Immersion”; inspired by Sanford's apparent love of roller coasters, the track title references the Virginia Reel, a ride at New Jersey's old Palisades Park.

At the centre of it all, of course, is “A Prayer For Lester Bowie,” which, for the record, Ragin didn't conduct in the traditional manner; instead, he used the “conduction” method associated with Butch Morris, and in bringing the inherent spontaneity of that approach to the fourteen-minute travelogue, the live character of Sanford's band is amplified all the more. A peak moment is an opening cadenza by Ragin that respectfully nods to Bowie without blatantly aping him, but the performance registers as strongly for its regal voicings, thematic statements, orchestral tone, and swinging pulse. While Ragin's a mighty presence, the heat generated by wailing saxophonists Levine, Vidal, and Phaneuf merits mention too. Wah-wah of a different kind also surfaces in the gutbucket interplay between trombonists Messbauer, Mike Christianson, Mike Seltzer, and Steve Gehring. At seventy minutes, there's a lot to absorb on the release, but the energy level never flags, and the conviction with which the musicians execute the charts is impressive. With material of dramatic range delivered with the utmost exuberance, the album's a roller coaster too, if of the musical kind.

November 2021