Hot House / September 2006

Winning Spins by George Kanzler

Two very different ensembles with downtown roots make up this Spins entry. An octet with a classic little big band instrumentation - and a trio with a most unusual configuration.

Night Owls (Smalls Records), presents a Chris Byars octet that has had a long gestation period of regular weekly gigs at Smalls, the Greenwich Village club that's been an incubator of jazz bands of various sizes for over a decade. Tenor saxophonist Byars not only leads the band but also writes most of the charts (11 out of 12 here). Those are a smart mix of originals plus older pop and jazz standards, played with authority and cohesion by a mix of veterans and younger players: Gary Pribek, alto sax; Mark Lopeman, baritone sax; John Mosca, trombone; Richie Vitale, trumpet; Sacha Perry, piano; Neal Miner, bass, and Andy Watson, drums.
The octet's modus operandi is encapsulated in Byars' approach to two familiar standards. "All or Nothing At All" is typical of the band's multi-jointed swing and polyphonic treatment of themes, with leads shifting between brass and reed instruments as other horns play counter-riffs. Such a way makes maximum use of the complete range of voices available in the band - use that on other tracks is multiplied as sax players double on flutes and clarinet. Then there's Jerome Kern's "The Way You Look Tonight," simultaneously contemporary and a blast from a past where mid-size combos like this had to put down a tune in little more than three minutes so that it would fit on a 78 rpm disc. Taken at a flagwaver tempo as fast as Kern has probably ever been done, it's a 3-minute and 8-second romp with the quicksilver theme bookended around short, hip solos from every member of the octet.

The only thing not typical of the octet on that Kern flagwaver is the lack of orchestral movement and backgrounds during the solos. Throughout most of the CD Byars has devised ensemble passages, cushions, kickers and riffs around, behind and between improvised solos. So even when only one or two soloists are featured - Mosca's trombone on "Nancy," Byars' tenor sax on Tadd Dameron's "Gnid" - the octet's other members have important roles to play. And this is a group as adept at the impressionistic colors of ballads like "Blue Gardenia," hard swingers like the title track, Latin-rhythmed pieces like Vitale's composition and feature, "Village Beauty," and the sophisticated cool-bop of "Conception," a tune from the Miles Davis "Birth of the Cool" sessions.