What a way for Onaje Allan Gumbs to pick up from where the Anguillian Jazz All Stars left off on Friday, November 09, with Herbie Hancock’s ‘Cantaloupe Island.’ Funny that what came to mind first and foremost - before I brought my mind back to the original recording of the song on Empyrean Isles in 1964 - was the US3 version. Onaje’s was, however, nothing like the ‘hip hop Jazz’ hit for the Englishmen.
For Cantaloupe, Gumbs used the saxophone of Mark Shim to state the theme and the coda, opting to sandwich his piano in the middle of the song.
‘People and Love’ from Allan Gumbs’ latest recording Sack Full of Dreams was done in a more modern fashion than Cantaloupe. On this one, the trio of piano, bass and drums was responsible for constructing the composition, but on the heels of the sax and percussion.
‘Destiny,’ (Sack Full of Dreams) written by bassist Marcus McLaurine was another feature for the saxophonist. This was the kind of song that lent itself well to both individual expression and ensemble playing. In that regard, the drummer, George Gray, took the role of cheerleader, driving both the leader and then the writer on their individual solos.
‘Remember their Innocence’ the title track of the independently financed solo project of the same name, started off slowly, as if in careful retrospection. The tempo shifted and quickened momentarily after that to one of celebration. If truth be told, it really did not; it merely seemed that way. In fact, the piano and sax just traded playfully for a bit, thus taking the song from sadness to recovery.
I should have suspected that we were set to watch the band pull out all the stops when the bassist downed the double bass for the electric and the drummer the sticks for brushes to deliver something from Return to Form called ‘Quiet Passion.’
Gumbs ended his set with Left side of right, again from Return to Form, as a dedication, in part, to saxophonist Eddie Harris. Now, no one would have anticipated that an homage to the Harris Jazz-funk tradition would segue to a banal calypso-type bacchanal. But thanks to percussionist Gary Fritz who mounted a masterful display that went from filling in off the beat to a Carnival j’ouvert prance - from soft to loud and around again.
So there, Onaje Allan Gumbs told a well-rounded story with his music that built up to a satisfying level, stopping just short of surfeit, and finally bringing the beat back down to a restful denouement. There was no need for an encore. We had had our full.
Israel
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