[Dixielandjazz] Woody Allen review

[Ric Giorgi]

RE: Woody Allen and "Most of the audience hears with its eyes" -
about half way down the review.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080702.wjazz03/
BNStory/Entertainment/home

Montreal jazz fest not the second coming, but still thrilling
J.D. CONSIDINE 

Globe and Mail Update

July 2, 2008 at 7:24 PM EDT

Festival International de Jazz de Montréal At various locations in
Montreal on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday

It's not often that a concert can be both thrilling and
disappointing at the same time.

Tuesday evening, pianist McCoy Tyner offered a concert in Montreal's
Théâtre Maisonneuve dubbed “McCoy Tyner Trio Remembers John
Coltrane.”

Given that Tyner played piano in what is considered Coltrane's
“great quartet” (its other members being the late Jimmy Garrison and
Elvin Jones), it was clear that this would be no ordinary tribute.
Indeed, with Coltrane's son, Ravi, sitting in on saxophone, there
were doubtless many who hoped it would be something akin to a second
coming.

An unreasonable expectation, perhaps, but understandable given that
the elder Coltrane died in 1967 – in other words, before a sizable
chunk of that audience had even been born.

To his credit, Tyner didn't offer an evening of John Coltrane's
Greatest Hits; the closest they came was during the Mongo Santamaria
tune Afro Blue, when Ravi acknowledged the familiarity of Tyner's
waltz-time piano vamp by tossing in a snippet of My Favorite Things.

Naturally, the crowd roared its approval.

For the most part, though, it was Tyner's repertoire that dominated,
and that was largely to the good.

Not only did that spare his current rhythm section – bassist Gerald
Cannon and drummer Eric Kamau Gravatt – comparisons to Garrison and
Jones, but it freed Ravi Coltrane from expectations of sounding like
his father. That he sometimes did anyway, offering elaborately
swirling phrases that ended only because he ran out of breath, was
pure gravy.

As for Tyner, age may have added the occasional missed note, but it
has in no way diminished the intensity of his attack. His playing
remained full of two-fisted ostinatos, blistering right-hand runs
and strongly percussive accents, and the encore rendition of Fly
with the Wind boasted an intensity (and volume) that would rival
many electric bands. With solo and big-band concerts ahead, it will
be interesting to see how Tyner (who won this year's Prix
Miles-Davis) plays out the rest of his festival stand.

Then again, at 69, Tyner is a relative youngster. Hank Jones, who
did a duo performance with bassist Charlie Haden at the Théâtre
Jean-Duceppe on Sunday, is 89, yet his playing remains as fluid and
witty as ever. He and Haden made their way through a dozen standards
and bop chestnuts before the enraptured crowd brought them back for
encores, and even though there were missteps along the way – Jones
started My Love and I in four, when it should have been in three –
they made the performance all the more endearing. (And it was great
fun watching Jones try to slip Haden up with unexpected modulations
in Body and Soul.) Haden brought his own Quartet West to Théâtre
Maisonneuve the following evening. As with his duets with Jones, the
performance emphasized the value of a good tune, whether obviously
classic (as with Ornette Coleman's Lonely Woman) or undeservedly
little known (the Lee Konitz composition Palo Alto). But it was the
high level of improvisation that truly marked this group. Haden
remains one of the greatest bassists in jazz, with a sense of line
so natural and melodic that his solos unfold like stories, and his
bandmates maintained similar standards, from the offhand virtuosity
of saxophonist Ernie Watts (whose solo on Lonely Woman stands as a
festival highlight) to the near-symphonic imagination of pianist
Alan Broadbent (who, on the same tune, seemed to be channelling
Tchaikovsky).

Woody Allen is better known as a comedian and filmmaker than as a
clarinetist, and his performance on Sunday, with his New Orleans
Jazz Band at the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, made that seem entirely
justifiable. Although there's no denying his charm or star power –
most of the audience were on their feet as soon as he walked onstage
– it's hard to explain why anyone would want to hear him play. His
semi-pro septet is competent enough, but no better than similar
ensembles that play the festival's street stages year after year,
and their repertoire, given to aged favourites such as Down By the
Riverside and Sweetheart of Sigma Chi, offered nothing that hadn't
been heard many times before.

Allen, on the other hand, seems to have reached the stage in his
playing where the spirit is willing but the embouchure weak. Barely
in the control of his clarinet, the 72-year old squeaked and
squawked throughout, remaining steadfastly out of tune in the upper
register, while rasping unmusically in the low range. I'd like to
imagine the whole thing was a bit of conceptual humour – Woody
Allen's Suite for Dyspeptic Duck and Jazz Sextet – but I suspect
Allen was painfully in earnest.

Or perhaps it was simply that some people rise to the occasion
better than others. Although Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, the
creative force behind Steely Dan, have made no secret of being
devoted jazz fans, they have never claimed that what they do is
actual jazz. But when the current version of Steely Dan played the
Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier on Tuesday, the emphasis was clearly on the
jazz side of things.

In addition to allowing more solo space for the four-piece horn
section – a definite plus, given the presence of trombonist Jim Pugh
and baritone saxophonist Roger Rosenberg – the group also made some
fairly explicit nods to jazz, from the black-and-white picture of
the Duke Ellington Orchestra on Fagen's Rhodes piano to the
inclusion of their little known Charlie Parker tribute, Parker's
Band.

Still, the jazz content remained a nod, and most of the 90-minute
set was given over to such familiar fare as Peg and FM. Fagen's
voice was a bit thin at times, seeming to disappear beneath the
backing vocals and instrumental cushioning, and the rhythm section
was sometimes more efficient than inspired ( Everything You Did ran
almost on autopilot), but over all their performance was a pleasant
reminder that pop content at jazz festivals is not necessarily out
of place.