Label:
Source: Dusted Magazine
Genre: Hammond B3 Trio
GAB's Rating: ★★★★★
Organ
aficionados dismiss Brian Charette at their own disservice. With a Positone
label contract in his pocket he’s stepped up his fecundity over the past year and
turned out a string of albums that refuse to cow to critics that consider the
instrument gauche or played out. Lesser hands accorded such liberal access to
the avenues of album production would likely risk a tapering in quality to keep
up. Charette’s kept his success record clean, balancing creative ideational
execution with a conspicuous mindfulness aimed at fun.
The
catalyst for Once & Future is at
once unexpectedly self-referential and more broadly historical. At an earlier
session Charette happened upon a copy of his own book 101 Hammond B3 Tips on the studio instrument and consequently started
pondering the pantheon of players influential to his development. Fourteen
pieces pay homage to these eclectic electric forefathers with three coming from
Charette’s own design. Guitarist Will Bernard and drummer Steve Fidyk both show
themselves game at exploring the guiding conceit of the date to the hilt.
The
program starts orthodoxly enough with Fats Waller and the nascent organ inroad
“Jitterbug Waltz” lathered here with a heaping helping of swollen, suspirating
pedal sustain. Initial predictability gets
upended as Charette vaults to the other end of the stylistic organ spectrum
with Larry Young’s “Tyrone”, juggling interlocking Latin and funk components
while deferring to Bernard for first solo honors. Barely a quarter century
separates the two compositions, but each is of seismic importance in measuring
the evolution of the instrument’s importance in jazz.
Charette’s
“Latin from Manhattan” intentionally matches the formidable kitsch quotient of
its title with a syrupy string of fills and a light samba beat. Bernard and
Fidyk recline into their roles amiably unperturbed by the lounge-scented
surroundings. Freddie Roach’s “Da Bug” works over a rolling call-and-response
boogaloo rhythm while Jack McDuff’s “Hot Barbecue”, a Harlem club staple from
the Hammond Sixties heyday, gets its well-deserved due with declamatory titular
band refrain intact.
Back-to-back
burning renditions of Bud Powell’s “Dance of the Infidels” and Woody Shaw’s
“Zoltan” signal another course change to more modern fare. Charette flips a
switch and hits the angular, staggered theme of the former with a tumescent
knife-edged tone that almost eclipses Bernard’s careful comping. The latter
tune gives Fidyk the chance to share his press roll and cymbal accent expertise
in tandem with the leader’s aggressive tonal swells and spirals. James Brown,
Jimmy Smith and Wes Montgomery comprise the album’s compositional final stretch
alongside a few more originals. Charette’s win column remains uncompromised
throughout. Derek
Taylor
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