Label: Tone Rogue Records, 2020
Personnel - Mark Turner: tenor sax; Ricardo Grilli: guitar; Kevin Hays: piano; Joe Martin: double bass; Eric Harland: drums.
Brazilian-born, New York-based guitarist/composer Ricardo Grilli has been conquering the scene, playing alongside top-notch musicians. If on his previous outing, 1954 (Tone Rogue, 2016), the narrative began in his father’s year of birth, now with 1962, he shifts the starting point to his mother’s. The group format was augmented from quartet to quintet, with Grilli keeping the foundational structure of the rhythm section with bassist Joe Martin and drummer Eric Harland, and offering the piano chair, previously entrusted to Aaron Parks, to Kevin Hays. The group is rounded out by the incredible saxophonist Mark Turner.
The latter burned a hole in my brain with a vibrant solo filled with intervallic awe on the gorgeous “Mars”, a 7/4 inspiration that deftly combines melodic illumination and harmonic openness. Grilli follows him, employing a highly articulated flowrate of notes in a torrent of sweeping emotion. Before this one, he had opened the session with “1954-1964”, an effects-drenched solo guitar intro that bridges the two records.
More polished in tone and with a bass groove that brings Coltrane’s “Acknowledgement” to mind, “Signs”, pays tribute to guitar hero Peter Bernstein, asking for both bop and post-bop interventions from piano, sax and guitar. A slick melody and bluesy feel are part of the process, but the band also swings with feeling. They return to the swinging motion on “ERP”, another bopish verve with sax-guitar unisons. Grilli opts to explore with stimulus, occasionally sliding figures with chromatic tension, whereas Turner glimpses at “Giant Steps” in his inner thoughts, developing ideas with flexibility.
The vibrancy of New York is very much on display on both “Lunatico”, a tribute to the Brooklyn’s bar mentioned in the title, which takes the form of a melodic pop-inflected exercise with hints of maracatu, and “183 W 10th St”, a Lovano-infused post-bop number with ample harmonic expansion and a nod to the famous jazz club Smalls.
Although one can’t find a real ballad here, distinction in mood is easy to detect, especially when you measure tunes such as “The Sea and the Night”, a hard-hitting evocation of Rosenwinkel’s best years in jazz; the Brazilian flavored “Coyote”, which reflects the bandleader’s native influence; and “Voyager”, a rhythmic steeplechase in five where Harland shines through.
Grilli sticks to traditional forms and these new compositions provide room to stretch. Surrounded by great musicians, he broadens his jazz palette with a functional musical vision.
Grade B+
Favorite Tracks:
02 - Mars ► 06 - The Sea and the Night ► 10 - Voyager
