Curtis Fuller Gives Big Band Music A Boost With A Double CD

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Big Band music picked up momentum through the 1920’s and ‘30s where it was performed live in clubs and on the radio.  It’s music that was made for live audiences, and trombonist Curtis Fuller celebrates the big band sound with the live performances on his double CD, I Will Tell Her from Capri Records.  Disc 1 is recorded in the studio with his sextet, and Disc 2 is the group’s live recording.  Performing with Fuller are tenor saxophonist Keith Oxman, trumpeter Al Hood, pianist Chip Stephens, bassist Ken Walker, and drummer Todd Reid.  The double disc set is comprised of eight original tracks penned by Fuller along with Kenny Dorham’s tune “Minor’s Holiday,” William Eckstine’s “I Want To Talk About You,” and Sonny Rollins classic tempest “Tenor Madness.”  I Will Tell Her takes audiences through a wonderland of Big Band-cast landscapes that incites ripples of joy and lightens the burden of everyday life.

 

Big Band music was made to invoke pleasure and Fuller understands that impulse in every cell of I Will Tell Her.  His trombone is an integral part in the operations that stimulate pleasure as he interacts, exchanges, and harmonizes with Oxman and Hood, while the rhythm section of Stephens, Walker and Reid buffer the points of intersection.  At times, the rollicking flutters of the horns emit a chain of soaring crests like in “Time Out” and “Tenor Madness (live)” but then reduce the decibels to a lukewarm simmer in tracks like “Sagittarius” and the title track.  The jumpiness in Stephens’ keys rip through “Minor’s Holiday” with the syncopated workings of the late Gregory Hines’ tap dancing feet, and the mid-tempo beats of “Maze” are alight with wrinkled horns that delight as they complement one another with intuitive strokes.

 

The live disc leaves a lasting impression on listeners as the perky twits of the horns reinforce the pizzazz of Rollins’ “Tenor Madness,” and the reflective mood of the piano keys in the title track penetrate deep into the senses.  The jovial looping of the horns along “The Court” inject a buoyant spree in the melody’s mobility, and the playful twists of the horns trellising “Maze” are supported by an undertow of soft, undulating beats.

 

Fuller shows a flare for sophistication while keeping the music feeling fun and lightweight.  The entanglements in the horns are complementing as the rhythmic pulses are tightly knit into the melodic patterns.  Whether Fuller’s sextet is being introspective or extroverted, they are bound by an intuitive nature and a mission to make pleasure attainable in their music.