New Jersey Star-Ledger

Funk is saxophonist's own Goold standard
Friday, October 13, 2006
BY ZAN STEWART
Star-Ledger Staff

Funk is an elemental aspect of the jazz art of tenor saxophonist Ned Goold.

But Goold's view of what defines funk is different than what most of us associate with the word: thumping backbeats, blues-drenched phrases.

"Funk is the essence of jazz, an uplifting, serious thing, not sentimental, not necessarily the blues, where the melody, rhythm, and harmony are all balanced," says Goold, 47, from the Rutherford home he shares with his wife, Margaret, and their sons Charles, 17, a drummer in his father's quartet, and Albert, 15.

Goold, who plays Saturdays at Smalls in New York, said that two great examples of funk in jazz are Charlie Parker ("Those 1940s Dial Records were funk at its highest level") and Louis Armstrong. "That's the funk that changed the world."

Another funkmeister in Goold's mind is Thelonious Monk, one of his favorite improvisers.

"Monk's thing is pure funk," says Hammond, Ind., native Goold, known for his 15-plus years with Harry Connick Jr., his appearances at Smalls, and his Smalls Records CD, "The Flows." "He's the most intellectual jazz musician there is, because his soloing is done in such a worked-out way. It's so rhythmically perfect. Funk is about the rhythm."

Rhythm also rules Goold's musical roost. "That comes first, before the notes," he says. He's also devoted to working out his solos, having devised what he begrudgingly calls an improvisational "system" -- "That's such a cold and analytical term."

"My system is made up of tritones," he says. Goold is speaking of the combination of such notes as C and F sharp, often called "flatted fifths," a musical term associated with bebop. Tritones have also long been part of classical music, where they were highlighted in Richard Wagner's "Gotterdammerung," among other pieces, and were known as "The Devil's Interval."

"It took me 20 years, and now I've gotten to the point where I can play my system on standards," says Goold. "I can play many ways, like Bird, like Coleman Hawkins, but I'm trying to do my own thing, be myself. When I play my system -- which is not free, it's like mega-structure, trying to add form rather than reduce it -- it sounds better than anything else I do."

Hear the saxophonist and composer in person or on "The Flows" and you discover a musician with a warm, lithe tone, a buoyant rhythmic approach, and an ability to craft phrases that can boast melody, or can be angular and dissonant.

At Smalls, Goold plays originals and standards with a quartet comprising his son, Charles; bassist Jamele Davis, a student at Rutgers University-Newark, and pianist Sacha Perry.

"Charles is a super-swinging drummer, and has great natural feel," says his proud father. "Jamele also has tremendous feel, and Sacha thinks like Monk and Bud Powell. He knows how to play jazz."

Goold builds his repertoire around obscure standards such as Cole Porter's "Rosalie" and Jerome Kern's "Who?" and originals with provocative titles such as "Hazmat" and "The Whatness of All Horse" -- a slow, bluesy number inspired by the first movement of Bartok's "Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta."

Goold is pleased with his musical process. "This is by far the best period, musically, I've had," he says. "After years of work, I'm implementing my system and it's working good. We're playing hard, trying to make the people move. It's all about the beat."