Freewheelin' with Claudio Roditi

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 80^th 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: