Mar 2, 2023 10:46 AM
In Memoriam: Wayne Shorter, 1933-2023
One of the most prodigious composers and singular, harmonically sophisticated improvisers in jazz history, tenor and…
Saxophonist Rahsaan Barber’s new album is titled The Music In The Night.
(Photo: Rod McGaha)Not long ago, Rahsaan Barber was talking with some friends about his new album of standards, The Music In The Night. One of them asked: “Does the world really need another recording of ‘The Girl From Ipanema?’”
“I got a little miffed,” the saxophonist recalled. “So when these people came to one of my gigs, I played ‘Ipanema.’ Then aerwards I said to them, ‘Well, now I’ll ask you: Does the world need another recording of this?’ And everybody was like, ‘Yeah.’”
Other than proving again that music usually speaks more eloquently than words, this exchange also says a lot about how standards are—and ought to be—perceived. On the one hand, it’s easy to play through well-known tunes more or less on autopilot. A more fruitful strategy is to accept that familiarity as a challenge, to engage with the material in ways that are unique to who you are.
That was Barber’s mission with The Music In The Night, released on his Jazz Music City label. You could say he’s been gearing up for it since childhood, when he first heard Billie Holiday’s rendition of “Georgia On My Mind.”
“I’d grown up thinking that Ray Charles was that tune,” he said. “But her recording made it almost like I’d never heard the song before. And now it’s my favorite version.”
That recording helped instill a respect for standards as springboards to self-expression. “My connection with a song begins with whether I want to grab my horn when I hear it,” Barber said. “It has to have an emotional landscape or potential. But it can be hard to separate the song from the arrangement. ‘My Favorite Things’ started as a pop song. But if you take it out of the John Coltrane library, then I’m gonna have a major problem with you because his interpretation is the key. It’s interpretation that offers jazz artists a chance to be familiar and individual.”
Barber and his Nashville cohorts—pianist Matt Endahl, bassist Jack Aylor, drummer Derrek Phillips and guests James DaSilva on guitar and vocalist Dara Tucker—pursue new insights into “Ipanema,” “Isn’t She Lovely” and “Skylark.” They offer a reggae-flavored “My Funny Valentine,” a raw blues treatment of “Georgia On My Mind” and a few originals tossed in for extra seasoning.
“I’m not trying to do anything that’s necessarily been done before,” Barber said. “But I’m also not trying to shut out any influences. I’m so fortunate to have the band I had for this record because they helped me to be rooted but not stuck—to be contemporary but not flighty. That’s the balancing act.” DB
Shorter performing at the 2015 Earshot Jazz Festival in Seattle.
Mar 2, 2023 10:46 AM
One of the most prodigious composers and singular, harmonically sophisticated improvisers in jazz history, tenor and…
“In the pantheons of guitar players, Jeff was the chosen one,” said Steve Vai of the late Jeff Beck.
Jan 24, 2023 11:48 AM
One of an iconic triumvirate of ’60s rock guitar gods, along with Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck set the…
Burt Bacharach with Carol Bayer Sagar and Miles Davis in 1984.
Feb 14, 2023 11:26 AM
Burt Bacharach, who died in Los Angeles at age 94 on Feb. 8, was among the last of a small, oddly isolated island of…
Samara Joy gives her acceptance speech at the Grammys on Feb. 5.
Feb 7, 2023 12:02 AM
Jazz vocalist Samara Joy was crowned Best New Artist during this year’s Grammy Awards on Feb. 5. The deeply emotive…
“There was a time I decided I was not a composer, only an improvisor, and I find that very difficult to do with one hand,” Jarrett says. “Jumping off a cliff takes two hands and two feet.”
Mar 21, 2023 12:24 PM
Keith Jarrett can do more with his right hand than most pianists can with two. As he pulls the protective cloth from…