Joel Frahm Trio Sizzles at HLSCC’s Jazz Showcase

I left all of the office excitement back in Road Town at about 05:00 in the afternoon.  Approximately three hours later, I was seated at the auditorium of the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College for the college’s Jazz Showcase on Friday, January 26  2007.

 

In the spotlight tonight was saxophonist Joel Frahm and his Trio.  I had never heard about Frahm before the advertisements for the show.  This was wholly my fault.  I have not been reading my Down Beat magazines in real time as I used to do.  Had I been more diligent, I would have learnt of Frahm two years ago. He was Down Beat’s Critic’s Poll “Rising Star” of 2005.

As I had predicted, the showcase was fifteen minutes late tonight.  There was a time when the HLSCC hardly ever started a concert a minute late.  That record seemed to have gone by the wayside since the opening of the auditorium.

The audience was quite thin again; nothing unusual there.  Therefore, if the producers were waiting on more patrons to arrive, they ought to have known that all they were doing was wasting the time of individuals like me who were on time.

All in all, fifteen minutes proved to be a miniscule sacrifice for the treat that would follow the lacklustre introduction from a newbie.  Dr. Michael O’Neal, the man who had been the face of the Showcase from its inception eleven seasons ago was seen in the audience where he has chosen to be since he assumed the Presidency of the college with the retirement of the immediate past president.

Frahm, his bassist, Joe Martin and his drummer, Bill Campbell took to the stage at close to 08:30 and launched into Thelonius Monk’s “Four in One.”  This selection shot the mercury sky high with a lively and bouncy interplay between the protagonists.  The leader provided his sidekicks with generous trading spaces that indicated that the man is somebody special.

But then again, that is what the Jazz idiom is supposed to be all about.  Still, it was so refreshing to witness the bassist and drummer being given such wide open spaces for them to contribute to the development of the piece.  The bass in particular was allowed to extend the improvisational concept much in the same way, I think, that Monk would have done on the piano.

Not to be left behind, drummer Campbell picked up the brushes for the toned down bossa, a tribute penned by the leader for the namesake of Antonio Carlos Jobim.  Campbell put down the brushes and replaced them with the sticks, leaving me with an inkling of his diverse technical abilities.

With “The song is you,” Frahm established a style of playing that surprised me at the outset.  I thought that he was being frivolous when he blew a few short sets of notes during Martin’s first solo.  Then it dawned on me that he was in fact comping on the saxophone; and he did so in a piano-like fashion at that. The style of the band was beginning to take shape.

The drummer then expanded his range to include suggestions of a melody such as a Frankie Dunlop would have done behind Monk or a Joe Morello of the classic Dave Brubeck Quartet would have essayed, complete with explosions on the kick drum.

The trio then made a sharp turn, skirting the fringes of Free Jazz on a quite odd “It’s only a paper moon“  “If you believed in me” (pun intended) you would accept that this version was nothing like the Nat King Cole standard bearer.  Then again, a Jazz artist is required to make a standard like Paper Moon his own by bringing something new to a song that makes for interesting listening. Frahm succeeded quite admirably in doing just that.

I am not so sure though that Frahm got away with that in front of what might have been a straight crowd.  To take care of that, he punctuated the first half of the show with a fitting homage to Charlie “Bird” Parker to wit “Moose the Mooch.”

The bassist had his “Song” featured as one of only two straightahead pieces – one on either side of intermission – I heard tonight.  This says, in no uncertain terms, that Frahm was not given to reproducing material in exactly the way they may have been done previously.  And if ever he failed in that quest, it was not for a lack of trying ideas and perspectives.

If nothing else, Bill Campbell made sure that the trio did not look or sound generic.  He transformed the traps into a showcase all its own with his wristy yet nimble licks.

He appeared not to watch his kit as probably all drummers do.  It was as though he became entranced in the soundscape and willed himself not to let go that is until the Trio had executed his very own “Dirt Song.”  Then, and only then, did he release the tension for himself.

The Joel Frahm Trio has now kicked off the year for the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College’s Performing Arts Jazz Showcase with a big bang. 

As I walked away from the concert auditorium into the night sky, my one regret was that there were not enough practicing musicians and music students to absorb the master class and be inspired by it.