The recent death of trumpeter Claudio Roditi prompted me to
pull out Freewheelin,’ his Lee Morgan tribute album. I remembered it as
being an excellent hard bop outing and relistening has confirmed that
recollection. I do have a couple of additional thoughts, though.
Lee Morgan was a fine composer. Aside from The
Sidewinder, his biggest hit (and check out Bob Cranshaw’s amusing account of how
that recording session went down), tunes like The Joker and Our Man
Higgins are deserving of more attention than they usually get. I especially liked the somewhat plaintive Peyote.
Andres Boiarsky. Years, ago, when he was a part of
Slide Hampton’s Dizzy Gillespie big band, I heard him at James Moody’s 80th
birthday celebration at the Kennedy Center. I had never heard of him, but he
played an outrageously good solo that left him and the sax section beaming.
Like Roditi, Boiarsky is Argentinian, and he’s still active on the jazz scene
there. His playing is great throughout this album.
Nick Brignola. He’s on only a few tracks on baritone
and soprano, but he’s always a pleasure to hear. He goes after every tune with gusto.
Claudio Roditi. In his obituary, I learned that he
played a rotary valve trumpet, which looks like it’s being held sideways,
rather than the more common piston trumpet, as you can see on the album cover. Supposedly the rotary trumpet
produces a mellower tone, but it would take better ears than mine to detect it
based on this album, which finds Roditi in a definite Morgan groove. What a
fine trumpeter he was! He'll be much missed.
The rhythm section. Mark Soskin on piano, the
ubiquitous Buster Williams on bass (and I really want to see the new documentary
about him), and Chip White on drums all contribute mightily and get some solo room, too.
Here's the inevitable The Sidewinder:
The Joker:
And Peyote:
