Herwig takes Miles and Trane for a post-bop ride south of the border
September 3, 2007
By Mark Stryker
Free Press Music Critic
In terms of truth in advertising, Sunday night’s set by Conrad Herwig’s Latin Side of Miles, Trane & Wayne was 33 percent false. The septet, led by an A-list New York trombonist, certainly played music by Miles Davis and John Coltrane, but never got around to anything by Wayne Shorter. Ok, bygones. The important point is that the band’s blend of Afro-Cuban rhythm with post-bop harmony and improvisation ranks with the most fiery and compelling music heard over the weekend at the Detroit International Jazz Festival.
On its face, the concept might sound gimmicky, yet it’s anything but. The airy modal forms naturally leave lots of elbow room for Latin percussion. The arrangements by Herwig and trumpeter Brian Lynch were models of efficacy, employing specific grooves, orchestration and formal wrinkles to illuminate the defining qualities of the original compositions. Davis’ iconic "So What," for example, was slowed down into a 6/8 swirl that effectively bent the famous bass line, doubled here on tenor sax, into a memorable shuffle-and-a-skip melodic-rhythm. On the other hand, Davis’ "Flamenco Sketches" was speeded up intoa guaguanco, a kind of complex rhumba that beautifully framed the weightless melody and moody scale colors.
The primary soloists, Herwig, Lynch and tenor saxophonist Craig Handy, all resisted running through textbook post-bop ideas. Instead, each phrased from inside the Latin beats, with Lynch scoring points right out of the gate on the opening "Seven Steps to Heaven" by mixing snaky lines with a charged rhythmic pop deliver the high notes. Herwig’s limber flexibility, coupled with a modest-sized but focused tone, sometimes suggested the precise attack of a trumpet or the looseness a modern saxophonists.
On pieces like Coltrane’s lyrical "Lonnie’s Lament" and Davis’ "Solar," pianist Bill O’Connell and bassist Ruben Rodriguez were valuable moderators between the worlds of Latin music and jazz. Drummer Robby Ameen and congero Pedro Martinez created a ticket of thrilling rhythm. Ensemble execution was razor sharp and the music pulsated with excitement, spontaneity, sophistication and soul.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...taE9sNpddt0%3D
Linear Mode
